The Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, says his grudge against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is largely on account of its betrayal of those that worked hard for its victory in 2015. In this interview with Aliyu Askira, he also says President Muhammadu Buhari did not do enough to assist him retain his senatorial ticket.
Your party the APC initially gave you automatic ticket to return to the senate but later accepted the name of Uba Sani from a congress organized by the party in Kaduna, are you bitter over the whole scenario?
I am sure you are one of those that had followed the way and manner I lost my ticket. There was this aspect that a serving Managing Director in the Buhari administration bribed the APC National Officers with the sum of $2 million to remove my name and replace it with that of Uba Sani.
Secondly, Governor Nasiru El-Rufai moved to Abuja and did everything within his powers to ensure that my name was removed and the reason for that was because I refused to assist him in the senate to secure the sum of $350 million foreign loan that his government wanted. Right from the day resumed office, we parted ways with the governor because of his antics and we have been operating on different pages.
I can tell you today that the APC is a dying party in Kaduna State. It has completely derailed from the main reason some patriotic Nigerians came together to form the party to rescue Nigeria from the PDP. Unfortunately, the APC today is worse than the PDP.
PRP is a party that does not have money bags in its fold, secondly, there are people who are insisting that the only popular parties we have are PDP and APC, how do you intend to win on PRP ticket?
Our people still have tremendous respect for late Mallam Aminu Kano, Sa’ad Zungur, Late Abubakar Rimi, Sabo Bakinzuwo and Mallam Balarabe Musa, who is still living. For me, I stood for Kaduna teachers when El-Rufai sacked them. I stopped the Governor from demolishing people’s houses and properties in Kaduna. I stood for traditional rulers that were disgraced by the Governor.
I stood for the health and local government workers including the disabled when the Governor wanted to deal with them. I also rendered assistance to thousands of those who voted for me as dividends of democracy. Our people are not oblivious of the hardships they are going through under the El-Rufai administration. And I can assure you in a free and fair election, I will win my seat again.
There was this allegation that the Kaduna State Governor made against you that in 2015, he gave you over 100 Million Naira to pay for party agents but you did not do so, what actually is the true story?
In 2015, our party at the national level promised to make available money through state governors so that they will pay for our agents and in Kaduna whatever our party gave out came through the Governor and it could be recalled that I told Kaduna people in 2105 our excos for example that I don’t have money to give them but I promised them that if they elected me, I will do my best to represent them.
If money was given, it must be to agents not me by the governor, I have since taken him to court for false allegations against me and I am demanding for N5 billion naira damages. Similarly, he sued me and wants the court to compel me to pay N2 billion compensation. So, time will tell what will happen next, but I can tell you, Kaduna people will make the worse mistake of their life if they allow this Governor to be re-elected.
As for the President, I have tremendous respect for him, but I was prevailed upon by Senator Bola Tinubu, Adams Oshiomhole, Balarabe Musa and other well meaning Nigerians to remain in the APC when my colleagues were defecting to other parties.
The President should have intervened so that they will give me my ticket because when I did not leave the APC, they promised that they will address all the short comings in the party but they did not do that and I left. I, Senator Shehu Sani, people can check, I did not obtain a single house or a plot since I became a senator.
Right from when I was young, we were in PRP with our families and grew up with the philosophy of the PRP as such, we don’t believe in stealing public money.
How do you intend to retain your seat incase the Governor who by all means wanted his candidate to win in Kaduna Central on APC ticket?
First, we are already embarking on serious house- to-house campaign. Secondly, the Governor wants to put Uba Sani there so that when he finishes his tenure he will pick the senatorial ticket from Uba Sani. People should know that Uba Sani was my former boy and he cannot look at me in the face and say he is challenging me.
He is using the Governor to attempt to win the Kaduna Central the way the Governor used Buhari’s name to secure a first term and is desperately using the name again to attempt to get re-elected.
But El-Rufai and Buhari are not of the same character or principle. Therefore, I caution Kaduna people against accepting this man because it will be a disaster if they allow him to comeback. In his second term, he will definitely destroy many people, sack more civil servants and all the places he has marked for demolition but the exercise is currently suspended, he will definitely carryout his threat in 2019.
