Former Kano State governor, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, yesterday returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), completing a defection circle hobnobbing with three political parties within a period of three months.
The Senator representing Kano Central senatorial district recently dumped the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) which he joined after leaving the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking on his latest defection yesterday, Shekarau said all agreements he had with the NNPP Presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, were not honoured, stressing that he was compelled to rejoin the PDP by “betrayal of trust” in the NNPP.
“All the agreements we had with him were betrayed by Rabiu Kwankwaso’s and his boys and they did not accommodate one single person from my camp,” he said, adding that he will never be a party to injustice.
The PDP yesterday welcomed Shekarau back from his three months sojourn in the NNPP.
Shekarau had in May 2022 parted ways with Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and dumped the All Progressives Congress for the NNPP with thousands of his supporters.
In 2014, Shekarau, one of the founding fathers of the APC, defected from the party to the PDP, alleging that the APC gave the party’s structures in Kano to Kwankwaso, who was the governor of the state at the time.
Kwankwaso had also defected to the APC from the PDP.
I’m Done With NNPP, Kwankwaso Has Humiliated Me – Shekarau
Ahead of the 2019 polls, Shekarau returned to the APC in 2018 after the National Working Committee of the PDP dissolved the Kano State executive committee of the party and constituted a caretaker committee, which he alleged favoured Kwankwaso who had also returned to the PDP.
Explaining why he left the NNPP yesterday, Shekarau said, “We reached an agreement to accommodate my supporters into various elective positions in the party, but until now, the committee set up could not accommodate one single person apart from the senatorial slot given to me.
“I will never be a party to injustice. My integrity is utmost and not any political position that will make me compromise it and that of my people. Nobody will use position or money against my integrity.
“I am a man of honour and integrity but his governorship candidate (Abba Yusuf) who was given the responsibility to look at areas to accommodate my people into various elective positions never for one single day did so or even call for a meeting let alone accepting my supporters to contest.
“Nobody will use money to change my conscience. I was a governor for eight years in Kano and people believed in my integrity.
“I am still living in a rented house in Abuja and never allocated a single plot of land to myself when I served as Governor in Kano and I challenge anyone who knows my plot of land to expose it.”
Welcoming Shekarau to the party in Kano, the national chairman of the PDP, Iyorchia Ayu, stated that the party would not be distracted by peddlers of lies.
Noting that the party would grow stronger, Ayu described Shekarau’s defection to PDP as homecoming and a move to strengthen democracy in the country.
He said, “Based on this development, we will join hands and fight anti-democratic forces across the country, especially those that are threatening democratic ideals.”
The PDP chairman stated further that the PDP, as a political party for all Nigerians devoid of any religious or tribal sentiment, had proved her mettle during her days as the ruling party.
“It is unfortunate that things have gone from bad to worse in Nigeria starting from insecurity and dwindling economic fortunes. Nigerians are suffering from a bad leadership which fails to address national woes squarely,” he said.
On his part, the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said he was in Kano to personally receive Shekarau due to the respect and mutual understanding between them.
“Malam Shekarau is a gentle politician who plays political games with decorum; a patriot per excellence. Going by his track records he has never been found wanting,” he said.
Atiku told Shekarau and his teeming supporters to consider themselves members of the PDP family.
