The deputy governorship candidate in the 2023 elections under the umbrella of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Kano State, Yusuf Bello Dambatta, has explained the factors that affected the fortunes of the party in the last election.
Dambatta, who spoke when he visited Daily Trust’s Kano Regional Office, however revealed that all hands were on deck towards the restoration of the lost glory of the party in the state.
Daily Trust reported how the party suffered setbacks from internal crisis and legal troubles before and after the defection of its leaders to the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
Speaking on the issue, Dambatta said, “What happened to PDP from the defection of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso at that time was that it was his group that formed the executive committee membership of the party from state, down to local government and ward levels. If you put the tally together you realise that you will have almost about 11,000 people that are manning PDP across the 484 Polling Units in the state which is a very huge number.
“So, when he defected to the NNPP almost 90 per cent of that Executive Committee members defected along with him. The structure of the Kwankwasiyya is very formidable and strong. PDP then became crippled in the sense that the leadership has moved to another platform. The leaders moved but the executives remained in the party and we were battling legal issues from July 2022 up to January 2023 less than 10 days to election.
“When people realised that in PDP, we didn’t even have an authentic candidate, based on the different court rulings, the electorate deserted the party not because they didn’t love it. It was because it was in shambles.
“We are in PDP and we are going to do everything humanly possible to reposition our party in Kano State despite the fact that it’s been divided into some political groups. We have the Wali’s, Shekarau’s and our own who didn’t follow Kwankwasiyya and other new entrants into the party.”
Dambatta added that the target “now is to bring everybody together to have a one big PDP. We will open our doors for everybody because we know the people love the party. The only problem is the internal issues and I am appealing to all our leaders in Kano to sheath their swords by allowing the party to grow.”
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