The New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, has blamed its presidential candidate for the 2023 general election, Rabiu Musa Kwankwa for being responsible for sacking of the kano state Governor, Governor Yusuf Abba Kabir, by the Election Petition Tribunal. The NNPP stakeholders accused Kwankwaso of playing anti-party activities as he has sold out the party to the ruling All Progressive congress, APC when he was struggling to be minister in Tinubu’s cabinet.
The Kano state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had on Wednesday sacked the sitting governor of Kano state and subsequently declared the APC, candidate, Nasir Gawuna as the legitimate winner of the 2023 governorship election in kano.
The three-man panel, led by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay, further withdrew the Certificate of Return the Independent National Electoral Commission presented to Yusuf.
The three-man panel declared that the margins of vote scored by NNPP were invalid and not in compliance with the 2022 electoral act and therefore has declared it void.
Consequently, the judges deducted 165,663 votes from the NNPP total votes, saying that the ballot papers of the 165,663 were not stamped or signed by INEC official and therefore declared them invalid.
Reacting to the judgement, a Chieftain of NNPP in Southwest, Alhaji Abass Akande Onilewura, in a statement made available to newsmen on yesterday, said the loss of the party in Kano corroborated the anti-party allegation raised against Kwankwaso.
Onilewura revealed that their presidential flgbearer was alleged to have involved in anti-party activities that were detrimental to the party.
He accused kwankwaso of failing to following due process in the selection of the NNPP flagbearer that have now cost the party a fortune.
In his statement, “This loss is a big one for us at NNPP and it only happened because of the selfishness of Kwankwaso who sold the party to the highest bidder.
“While we are still waiting for the Certified True Copy of the tribunal judgment, it is important for the world to know that this would not have happened if Kwankwaso had allowed due process and given the ticket to the most qualified candidate but his inlaw.
“Our investigation also showed that the continuous engagement of Kwankwaso with APC at some point gave room for them to discover loopholes which were later used against the Kano governor to secure victory for the opposition.
Onilewura lamented that “It is unfortunate that some of us sweat to get the party to where it is today, only for someone like Kwankwaso to come and make all our efforts a waste. We are happy that someone like that has been expelled from this great party.
“We also want to use the avenue to warn him to stay clear of NNPP, we don’t want a betrayal in our party and we would do anything humanly possible to secure our party from hijackers who are more concerned about personal gain.
“I will also urge our members across the country to remain calm because a new leadership has taken over the party and we would do everything to restore the glory of our party. NNPP will come out to become a strong voice and opposition that would stand for justice, equity, and good governance.”
