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Kano Central: Litigation, resignation, EFCC threaten parties

Kano Central Senatorial District, which is notorious for never returning a candidate to the red chamber since 1999, is currently facing candidacy complications among the…

Kano Central Senatorial District, which is notorious for never returning a candidate to the red chamber since 1999, is currently facing candidacy complications among the three major parties in the state.

The district, which is one of the largest in Nigeria in terms of population, is made up of 15 LGAs: Dala, Dawakin Kudu, Fagge, Garun Mallam, Gezawa, Gwale, Kano Municipal, Kumbotso, Kura, Madobi, Minjibir, Nasarawa, Tarauni, Ungogo and Warawa with over 2.5 million registered voters.

Daily Trust reports that since the return to democracy in 1999, the district has had six different senators, including two former governors, meaning no candidate has ever won a return election.

Those that have represented the district and the parties through which they won elections are Ibrahim Kura Mohammed (PDP, 1999-2003); Rufai Sani Hanga (PDP, 2003-2007); Mohammed Adamu Bello (ANPP, 2007-2011); Basheer Garba Lado (PDP, 2011-2015); Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (APC, 2015-2019); and Ibrahim Shekarau (APC, 2019-date).

But since the conclusion of party primary elections, the candidature of the PDP has been a subject of litigation between Danburam Nuhu and Laila Buhari after both of them were declared winners at the parallel primary elections of the party.

Nuhu had gotten the nod of the party’s national headquarters, which submitted his name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its candidate for the district, but a recent judgement of the Court of Appeal sitting in Kano has altered the arrangement.

The appellate court, while nullifying the candidature of Nuhu, directed INEC to recognise Laila Buhari as the candidate of the party in the election.

However, as the litigation was an offshoot of the leadership crisis in the party’s state chapter, sources close to Nuhu said the last has not been heard of the litigation, adding that they still hope to get back their “mandate” through the apex court.

For the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), everything was going smoothly with the announcement of Shekarau, the current senator for the district and former governor of the state, as the party’s candidate in July.

But his defection from the party on August 29 has thrown a clog in the wheels of the party’s run in the state.

Though a former senator for the district, Sani Rufai Hanga was announced as his replacement shortly before INEC released the final list of candidates, Shekarau’s name remained on the list as the candidate for NNPP in Kano Central.

While announcing his defection, Shekarau said he had written to INEC and NNPP to announce his withdrawal from the senatorial race for Kano Central under the party, but the electoral umpire said the former governor will remain the candidate of the NNPP and his name will be on the ballot on election day as a candidate of the NNPP except through judicial intervention.

But the publicity secretary of the party in Kano, Abdullahi Ibrahim Rogo, said the party was aware of INEC’s position and had already approached the court for judicial intervention.

The party, therefore, hoped that would come in time to get INEC to change its stand.For the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the challenge is that its candidate, Abdulsalam Abdulkareem, has legal baggage with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He was accused of defrauding a Kuwaiti national of $1.3 million.

Before Abdulkareem, popularly known as A. A. Zaura, emerged as the party’s candidate in July after defeating a former senator, Basheer Garba Lado, he had secured victory in a fraud charge instituted against him by the anti-corruption agency, but the victory was overturned by the Court of Appeal, which set aside the judgement of the trial court and ordered a retrial before another judge.

In the past weeks, EFCC’s attempts to arraign the embattled Zaura before a Federal High Court in Kano have been hitting a brick wall with his absence in court to take his plea, leading the anti-graft agency to declare on Monday that it was on the hunt to effect the arrest of the APC senatorial candidate.

But at a press conference on Tuesday, Zaura, without specific reference to the EFCC case, said he would not be intimidated from going ahead with his ambition to represent the masses of the senatorial district.

Analysts have said the negative attention Zaura is getting with the EFCC case may force the party to consider alternatives, while for the other parties, the challenge to their candidacy may leave voters in confusion.

 

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