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National leaders of the All Progressive Congress, APC, yesterday swooped on Kano and Jigawa states in a bid to lure dissident governors of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to their fold.
The train of oppositionists led by interim national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, General Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and including Governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, is scheduled to arrive Adamawa State this morning where they are also expected to woo Governor Murtala Nyako, another of the PDP G7 governors.
Ahead of the visit, the mainstream PDP, following the earlier visit of the APC leaders to Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State last Tuesday, accused APC leaders of desperation, asserting the APC to be “a hypocritical party” bereft of a sound ideology.
APC’s Lai Mohammed replied, saying that democracy is a game of numbers and that “a thousand friends is not enough.”
Meanwhile, the visit of the APC leaders to Kano sparked an internal crisis within the party following the apparent snub of Governor Kwankwanso by the state leaders of the APC led by the immediate past governor of the state, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau.
Shekarau who took over from Kwankwanso and handed over to him told newsmen that they would not welcome the governor into the party because he is a man with a rich history of violence against political contemporaries.
Also in the team of APC leaders in Kano were erstwhile presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Nuhu Ribadu, Senate Minority Leader, Senator George Akume, among others.
Chief Akande who spoke on behalf of the party described Kwankwanso “as a like-minded person being persecuted elsewhere” saying “we have a home where he call his own without let or hindrance.
Akande said: “Leaders of APC decided to come to Kano for solidarity because some of you are being persecuted in your party. We are proud to showcase our party, APC is made of like-minded people like you, they are people of great minds. Mr. Governor we came to invite you to join us.“
In his response, Governor Kwankwanso said: “We have heard you, we would sit down with stakeholders to take decision anytime from now. I must not fail to mention that we are much stronger than what we were in 2011. Kwankwasiyya was powerful enough to win 2011, and by the Grace of God we are going to make a difference again in 2015,”
Kwankwanso in a remark to his supporters present said: “My people, all those that matter in the APC are here and whoever is not here now has no national carriage to move the party.”
Speaking earlier, General Buhari told Kwankwanso: “We voted you out in 2003 and want to say that it was not your red cap that brought you back to power for a second term rather it was sheer dint of luck and that is what we are also looking for to bounce back.”
Addressing newsmen on the visit Shekarau vowed that the state APC would “not welcome such a personality into our party”
Shekarau who was a key player in the emergence of the new party said: “Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso is a man with a rich history of violence, he is not a man of peace, he did not live in peace with late Abubakar Rimi, he had a running battle with Aminu Wali, and he failed to live in peace with the party that brought him to power. How then can we be looking up to that personality to cross over to our party”.
Shekarau who spoke through his media manager, Alhaji Sule Yau Sule further said:
“we got the information about their visit to Kano yesterday (Thursday) and I do know that they have equally scheduled a meeting with Sardauna and his group tonight we would bear our mind because our party is a party of discipline.”
From Kano, the team proceeded to Dutse, Jigawa State where they also met with Governor Sule Lamido.
Chief Akande said they were in Dutse to woo Governor Lamido to join them in their bid to rescue Nigeria. He expressed wonder why an astute politician and committed leader like Lamido was still in PDP, saying that they needed him in APC to help salvage Nigeria.
Replying, Governor Lamido one of the nine persons that mooted the formation of the PDP in 1998, said he would continue to remain in the party which he said made him what he is today. He nevertheless agreed that the PDP is very sick and needed a medication like the APC to cure it.
Lamido said: “Even if I leave PDP, the party we gave birth, gave me many positions in my life, still we will leave our supporters in the party.”
The APC team is expected to proceed to Adamawa State where it is expected to meet with Governor Nyako. That meeting which was earlier scheduled for last night, We learnt, was cancelled based on the curfew presently in place in Adamawa State.
The PDP in a reaction to the developments described the APC leaders as desperate, belonging to an ideologically hollow party bereft of sound principles.
In a reaction apparently directed at the Tuesday convergence of APC leaders with nPDP leaders in Sokoto, the PDP said the desperation to woo the PDP governors was a confirmation that the APC lacked “true followership and electable materials and hence its desperate bid to poach from the PDP.”
In a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP said the APC has shown that it is nothing but “a party of hypocrites driven by desperate and blind quest for power and not by any ideology geared towards serving the interest of the people.
“In turning around to woo members of the PDP, a party it has continued to castigate, the APC has shown the height of hypocrisy and ultimately confirms to Nigerians that it has nothing to offer and truly lacked genuine ideology and principle. The APC has shown that it lacks genuine followership and electable materials. Otherwise why would it be desperate to poach from the PDP? Why would it celebrate and dramatize mere discussions with three or four aggrieved governors of the PDP?
The statement, however, said the PDP is not perturbed by the actions of the opposition adding that “no genuine member of the PDP will opt for the APC”, which it described as a party given to religious bigotry and promotion of violence and divisions among Nigerians.
Reacting to the assertions, the APC’s spokesman, Lai Mohammed said that following the meeting with Governor Lamido, “we are not ashamed to say that we are wooing the G7 governors and if they have the penchant of losing their own members, it is not our own penchant.
“We have the penchant of wooing people to join us. This is a game of numbers and a thousand friends is not enough, the more the merrier and we are going to be all over Nigeria wooing more and more Nigerians to join us,” he said.
