The Kano State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has produced two governorship candidates from its parallel primaries.
Muhammad Sani Abacha and Sadiq Wali were both declared winners of the parallel primaries conducted by factions loyal to the state party chairman, Shehu Sagagi and a former minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali.
Muhammad and Sadiq are sons of the late head of state, General Sani Abacha and Wali respectively.
This development is coming on the heels of two recent court judgments acknowledging the Sagagi faction as the authentic executives of the party after one of the courts had temporarily restrained him from parading himself as PDP chairman in Kano.
Daily Trust reports that at the primary election conducted by the Sagagi faction, the Returning Officer, Hajiya Amina Garba, declared Mohammad as the winner after polling 736 votes to beat Jaafar Bello who scored 710 votes.
The chairman of the electoral committee, Alhaji Mohammed Jamu, said the primaries were legally conducted with validly-elected delegates and supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), police and State Security Service operatives.
A total of nine governorship aspirants purchased the party’s nomination and expression of interest forms with two of the candidates, Abacha and Bello, the only ones that identified with the Sagagi faction.
The primary conducted by a faction loyal to the former foreign affairs minister produced Sadiq Wali as the winner with 455 votes to beat Ibrahim Al’Amin Little who came second with 333 votes.
The chairman of the election committee, Chief Bunmi Adu, also announced that former Chief of Staff to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Dr Yunusa Adamu Dangwani, polled 276 votes while Dr Yusuf Bello Danbatta, who was Kwankwaso’s commissioner for Land and Planning, polled 182.
A former commissioner under Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Muazu Magaji and Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado polled 25 votes each, while Mustapha Bala Getso got 20 votes.
Rimingado, the suspended chairman of the state’s Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC) had earlier withdrawn from the governorship race.
Daily Trust reports that the crisis within the party had also led to confusion during parliamentary primaries as both factions failed to produce candidates for several federal and state constituencies.
Reacting, Sagagi acknowledged that this is perhaps the first time the party is not fielding candidates in some elective positions.
“We have been in litigation severally; we went to court as much as 10 times. This naturally frightens the would-be party members that will be hoping to come in and realise their aspirations,” he said.
The crisis rocking the party started even before the 2019 general elections and led to the exit of former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and several other bigwigs, who have now teamed up to form the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
The position of the Northwest zonal vice chairman had been at the centre of the crisis that pushed Kwankwaso out of the party after a clash broke out at the Kaduna venue of the zone’s congress in 2021.
From Clement A. Oloyede & Salim U. Ibrahim Aminu Naganye (Kano)
