Another crisis is brewing in the Kano State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the endorsed deputy governorship aspirant, Murtala Sule Garo, is reportedly mulling defection from the party.
Garo, the immediate past Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, was endorsed by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and paired with the Deputy Governor, Nasir Gawuna (for governor) to fly the flag of the party at the 2023 gubernatorial election.
However, following a peace parley between Ganduje and Senator Barau Jibrin, a political arch-enemy of Garo from the same Kano North Senatorial Zone, Garo was said to have felt slighted and threatened to abandon the joint ticket, as well as the party.
Daily Trust further reports that Ganduje has agreed to step down for Barau for the Kano North senatorial ticket after the senator abandoned his gubernatorial ambition.
Sources said Garo felt Barau, aside from being his political enemy, played major roles as one of the leaders of the factional G-7 that had been trying to wrest the control of the party away from their camp and should not have been welcomed back to the fold after a Supreme Court judgment firmly placed the party in the hands of the governor.
It was gathered that the governor and Barau visited Garo at his residence at midnight on Wednesday to settle the grievances and make him rescind his plan to dump the ticket and the party.
But sources close to the former commissioner said even after the meeting, Garo remained unsure about the arrangement and refused to give a definite answer as to the request of the governor.
“He is planning to meet with his associates and make a concrete decision, but he is still very sad about the development (Barau back in the fold), but he has not defected or abandoned the ticket,” one of the sources, who asked not to be named, said.
Daily Trust also observed that Garo was absent in the convoy of the governor when Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was received on Thursday to meet with delegates of the party in the state.
Garo is also said to be worried about the chain of defections hitting the ruling party in Kano, which many believe may affect the party’s fortunes in 2023.
It was further gathered that Garo may be considering joining the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) which has been gathering momentum in Kano, with many aggrieved bigwigs of APC, including a former governor, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, recently joining.
The National Leader of NNPP, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a former Governor of Kano State, is an in-law to Garo and was instrumental in establishing him as a formidable politician in the state after he brought him into mainstream Kano politics as the Organising Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007.
Meanwhile, the Member representing Bagwai/Shanono Constituency in the Kano State House of Assembly, Ali Ibrahim Isah Shanono, returned to the ruling APC few days after decamping to NNPP.
Daily Trust reports that 14 House of Assembly members in Kano defected to the NNPP from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the APC.
Shanono announced his return to the APC in a letter addressed to the assembly’s leadership, pledging to work for APC’s success in the general elections.
From Clement A. Oloyede & Zahraddeen Y. Shuaibu, Kano
