Kano state gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party (PDP), Bashir I. Bashir and other party leaders yesterday boycotted the presidential campaign rally of the party in the state.
Bashir was absent at the campaign rally held at the Kano Pillars Stadium in Sabongari area of the state along with other party leaders, including the chairman of LP Presidential Campaign Council, Mohammed Zarewa; state coordinator of Peter Obi’s campaign, Balarabe Wakili; and Idris Dambazau, a member of the presidential campaign council.
When contacted, Bashir said the leaders of the party would meet and review incidents leading to the rally and address the press in the next 48 hours but refused to comment further.
However, a senior member of the party familiar with the development, who asked not to be named, confided in Daily Trust that the leaders’ issue was with the vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed and not with Peter Obi, the presidential candidate.
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He said the leaders of the party in the state were surprised and disappointed that they were not being carried along with the campaign activities of the party, and that none of them was contacted until Saturday evening when Obi’s entourage arrived in Kano.
“Obi earlier told them that Baba-Ahmed would lead the northern mobilization with their support and he (Obi) released money for the campaign but the VP has refused to carry any of them along for reasons best known to him. How can you be coming to campaign in Kano and not carry the governorship candidate and other leaders along?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Obi yesterday told the teeming supporters at the campaign rally that if elected he would continue to unite Nigerians and shun actions that would further divide the country along ethnic and religious lines.
He pointed out that the previous administrations and other political actors have been taking advantage of ethnicity and religion in taking the country back.
