Crack in Kwankwasiyya as top shots meet Sule Lamido

Some top members of the Kwankwasiyya Movement in Kano appear to have broken away from the movement following their meeting with Sule Lamido, a former Jigawa State governor, on Tuesday.

They were said to have among other things, asked the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP to disown the movement’s leader, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, at the meeting.

Kwankwaso, the founder of the movement, had recently launched a new group, The National Movement (TNM) and is reported to be considering moving the Kwankwasiyya and TNM into another political party, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). 

He has however maintained that he remains a PDP member.

Daily Trust reports that one of the two factions of the executives claiming leadership of the PDP in Kano comprises loyalists of Kwankwaso’s movement.

But on Tuesday, a crack appeared within the close-knitted political movement (Kwankwasiyya) when some of its inner caucus members, including Dr. Adamu Dangwani, Yusuf Danbatta, Akilu Sani Indabawa, among others as well as members from the faction loyal to Ambassador Aminu Wali, met with the former Jigawa State governor (Sule Lamido) at his Kano office.

The Kwankwasiyya members at the meeting were conspicuously seen to have ditched their red caps, an insignia of the movement.

At the end of the closed-door meeting with Lamido, a communiqué jointly signed by Yusuf Bello Danbatta, Akilu Sani Indabawa and Abdullahi Isa Sulaiman alleged that there were desperate attempts by Kwankwaso to control the PDP while promoting and building a rival party NNPP.

“This desperation is aimed at sabotaging the PDP in the 2023 elections and beyond. The game plan is to deny PDP the opportunity of fielding any candidates in the 2023 election, exploiting the time frame of the party timetable set-up by the guidelines.”

Reading the communiqué, Danbatta stated that by maintaining the party leadership hoisted by Kwankwaso, the NWC is leaving the fate of millions of party supporters and sympathizers in limbo.

He added that time is of the essence since the selling of nomination forms to prospective candidates for various positions closes on April 1, 2022, expressing fear that if urgent action is not taken, PDP will end up without candidates thereby clearing the field for NNPP and other political parties.

Efforts to get reactions from Comrade Aminu Abdussalam, the Kwankwasiyya Movement’s spokesman, as well as Sanusi Bature, the movement’s Media Centre coordinator, were unsuccessful as calls to their phones indicated that they were switched off at the time of filing this report.

But Shehu Sagagi, the PDP chairman loyal to Kwankwaso and a member of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, told Daily Trust that the stakeholders that met with Lamido were “empty barrels”

He said Lamido had always been looking for ways to gain political control in Kano but will not succeed. (Daily Trust)