PDP stronger in Kano without Kwankwaso – Shekarau

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still strong in Kano state despite the recent defection of Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former governor of the state, Ibrahim Shekarau, has declared.

Speaking to State House correspondents yesterday after a meeting with Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, Shekarau said Kwankwaso’s exit would not affect the chances of the party in the 2015 elections.

He said: “His defection cannot kill PDP. Those current with situation on ground knew that the governor of Kano had long before now been out of PDP. What he is running is Kwankwasiya, a cultism kind of a group. PDP has always been there, so what we are doing is we are now joining PDP and his group has gone into APC. We shall see whether we are the ones on ground or the Kwankwasiya APC. We checked out from the APC when we discovered that some of the principal actors in the merger did not mean well.”

On the agitation for the North to produce the president in 2015, Shekarau said he didn’t believe in northern presidency, stressing that if the president wins the PDP primaries, he would campaign for him in Kano.

“I have never subscribed to the argument of localising the presidency to a particular region. If you had followed my arguments and my presentations or debates in the presidential election, I said so. My concern is we should do to get the right leadership regardless of where it is coming from.
“This issue of rotational presidency is not the issue. What we should be talking about is balancing so that we carry people along.”