Reports that Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) made overtures to him to return to the party ahead of the 2019 general elections are not true, former Kano State governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, told Daily Trust last night.
Shekarau, who is the leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] in Kano State, said neither Ganduje nor APC ever sat down with him or made overtures to him before or after Senator Rabi’u Kwankwaso announced his defection from APC to PDP last Tuesday.
Daily Trust reported yesterday, quoting sources close to Shekarau, that Governor Ganduje offered him to chance to nominate a running mate for next year’s election following plans to drop the current deputy governor, Prof Hafiz Abubakar from the APC ticket. The deputy governor said several months ago that he will not run again with Ganduje in next year’s election.
But Malam Shekarau denied that such a thing was ever discussed. He said with the heating up of the political season, a lot of stories are being peddled everyday which are not true but are designed to achieve certain political ends.
Shekarau, who has declared his intention to seek PDP’s presidential ticket, recalled that similar stories made the rounds recently alleging that he was about to conclude a deal with the Kwankwasiyya group in order to team up against Ganduje and APC in next year’s elections. He denied that there were such talks, saying he never sat one on one with Kwankwaso since the 2015 elections. He also urged journalists to cross check any information they get, even if it is from sources allegedly close to him, in order not to mislead the public about political moves in Kano State and the country.
