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Kano State deputy governor Abdullahi Tijani Gwarzo
yesterday announced his defection from the All Nigeria Peoples Party
(ANPP) to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Director-General of the
Campaign Organization of the Deputy Governor, Farouk Hassan, confirmed
the exit of the deputy governor from the ANPP yesterday.

Mr Hassan said the deputy governor withdrew his
membership from the ANPP after consultations with various interest
groups and that the decision followed the failure of the leadership of
the party in the state to provide the desired enabling environment for
the contestants, not because the governor was supporting a particular
contestant.

“The deputy governor and the campaign organization
were not worried about the support the governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, has
been rendering to a specific gubernatorial aspirant,” he claimed.

He however described as “worrisome’, the issue of the
principle of equity, justice and fair play that had been continually
preached had not gone beyond rhetoric. Following this development, he
(the deputy governor) declared his withdrawal from ANPP. He lamented
the party’s loss of focus and moral justice, saying that the leadership
of the party violated the Electoral Act 2010 and the party’s
constitution in respect of the conduct of primaries as it failed to
comply with all the procedures for primary elections where delegates
were not elected by the people, but were picked by the party officials
to favour a particular governorship contestant.

Similarly, a chieftain of the party, and the
immediate past director-general of the Kano State Pilgrims’ Welfare
Board, Sani Lawan Kofa Mata, has also dumped the ANPP. Mr Kofa Mata’s
grouse against the party is what he called the highhandedness of the
party’s leadership, the lack of internal democracy and the undue
interference of the state governor, Mr Shekarau, in the party affairs.
Mr Kofar Mata was contesting the governorship seat until he was
persuaded to switch gears and contest the seat of the Kano Central
Senatorial District instead, which he also lost to Aminu Ibrahim Abba.

In fact, we asfounding members of the All Nigeria
People’s Party (ANPP) joined the party at its formative stage based on
the belief that it was the best political platform that will promote
social justice, equity and fair-play at every level of governance,” Mr
Gwarzo said.

“However, trends in Kano ANPP in the last few months proved that the
party has abandoned the noble cause it stood for. It has in fact
derailed and has allowed individual’s interest to override collective
interest and has institutionalized actions that portray injustice and
dictatorship.”</