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Kwankwaso Not Stepping Down for Anyone, Says Campaign Council
The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso, is still in the race and would not step down for anybody, the party’s Presidential Campaign Council said on Sunday.
The council described the insinuation as a campaign of calumny.
According to the NNPP, the reports were being masterminded by jobbers seeking to sell expired drugs to a sick Nigeria.
The spokesperson of Kwankwaso/NNPP-PCC, Ladipo Johnson, made the clarification in a statement issued in Abuja titled, “Is Kwankwaso still in the race? Is he running to win?”
He said, “These are the questions being bandied around by the supporters of those who have failed this country and who are still pretenders to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The campaign of calumny is well orchestrated and comes from more than one political block! Ab initio, they initiated and carried rumours about Kwankwaso purportedly stepping down for their weak candidates.
“I pity these political jobbers as there probably is no easy way for them to sell their weak and ailing candidates who have passed their ‘sell by dates’ to Nigerians! I make bold to say that these so-called candidates should be taken off the supermarket shelf (off the political space). They have cost us enough.”
Johnson added that political jobbers are attempting to push their narrative by using pecuniary means to entice NNPP or Kwankwasiyya members who then stage “decamping shows”, where they parade a few hired hands adorned with “new” red Kwankwasiyya caps which they symbolically remove or throw away.
He added, “Rabiu Kwankwaso and the NNPP are contesting this election to the end. The RMK 2023 campaign is waxing stronger as we head into the last 30 days of the campaign.
“Our candidate has reached way over 400 plus local governments and is going into the only state he has not been to, to campaign in the coming days.
“We repeat that we have a clear strategic path to victory and that by God’s special grace, the NNPP and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso are going to win the election.”
The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (NWC) has suspended the National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade; National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu; Deputy Legal Adviser, Okechukwu Osuoha; and National Organizing Secretary, Umaru Bature for one month.
The suspension comes on the heels of the judgement of the Federal High Court On Friday, which stopped the party’s planned national convention.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, told journalists in Abuja on Saturday, that the decision followed an emergency meeting of the national working committee, which was held in Abuja.
President Donald Trump of the United States on Friday designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), in response to allegations of widespread persecution and genocide against Christians.
Writing on his Truth Social account, Trump stated that Christianity faces a serious threat in Nigeria.
The US leader also added Nigeria to a State Department watch list.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump wrote.
According to the US president, he was placing Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer and most populous nation, on a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations the US deems to have engaged in religious freedom violations.
According to the State Department’s website, the list includes China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, and Pakistan, among others.
Trump said he had asked US Representatives Riley Moore and Tom Cole, as well as the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, to look into the matter and report back to him.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has removed Hon. Abubakar Gummi from the House of Representatives after he left the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress.
The lawmaker represented the Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency in Zamfara State.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu delivered the ruling, holding that Gummi’s defection breached the Constitution.
The court said the seat does not belong to any politician but to the political party that sponsored the election.
According to the judgment, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, is barred from recognising Gummi “as a member representing Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency.”
The judge also instructed the Independent National Electoral Commission to “conduct a fresh election” for the vacant seat within 30 days.
The case was instituted by the PDP and its Zamfara chairman, who insisted that Gummi’s move to the APC had no legal justification. They argued that there was no division in the PDP to support his defection, as required by Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution.
Gummi, through his counsel, claimed he left the PDP due to internal crises which he said made it “impossible” to serve his constituents effectively. The judge, however, dismissed his arguments and granted all the reliefs requested by the plaintiffs.
Justice Egwuatu, in a firm comment, warned politicians against what he described as reckless party hopping.
“Political prostitution must not be rewarded,” he declared, adding that lawmakers must not transfer votes won on one party’s platform to another party.
The court also ordered Gummi to refund all salaries and allowances received from October 30, 2024, until the date of judgment. He is also barred from earning any further benefits as a member of the House.
Additionally, the judge imposed a N500,000 cost against the defendants in favour of the PDP.
