The leadership of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has described the defection of Kano State Governor, Engr. Kabir Abba Yusuf’s defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was a betrayal of a sacred trust.
NNPP’s reaction to the move is contained in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Ladipo Johnson which was obtained by Saturday Telegraph yesterday.
Johnson, in the statement, wrote, “We deeply regret that Governor Abba, a man entrusted by the people of Kano State on the strength of his decades of unwavering loyalty and dedicated service to the Kwankwasiyya Movement, has now chosen to betray that sacred trust.
“By this action, he risks returning the state to the very forces that have long opposed its progress and the aspirations of its people.”
The party lamented that Governor Yusuf, who played an active role in the party’s recently conducted congresses for its leadership from the ward to the national convention about three months ago, would hinge his action on an irredeemable crisis within the party, saying such is therefore baseless and an afterthought.
“This is not the first time such a betrayal has occurred in the political history of Kano. In the early 1980s, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi defected from the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) to the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP), taking with him the vast majority of elected officials, including nearly all local government chairmen and councillors, 120 out of 126 members of the Kano State House of Assembly, and most Kano representatives in the National Assembly.
“Yet, the electorate delivered a resounding verdict: In the 1983 gubernatorial election, Rimi was humiliatingly defeated by Mallam Aliyu Sabo Bakin Zuwo of the PRP, finishing second.
“Even more telling, of the 120 state assembly members who joined Rimi’s defection, only one was re-elected, an outcome that should serve as a sobering lesson to any politician contemplating the path of disloyalty.
“While this development is deeply disturbing and painful for all who have invested in the Kwankwasiyya vision, we urge the 1,019,602 people who cast their votes for his election, as well as the good people of Kano State and Nigeria, to remain calm, patient, and restrained. Let us not descend into acrimony or division,” the party wrote.
