Pressure Mounts On Kwankwaso To Leave APC Ahead Of 2019

There is mounting pressure from some PDP bigwigs on former governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to dump the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and re-join them, credible sources in Abuja and Kano told Daily Trust yesterday.
The renewed call on Kwankwaso to go back to the PDP heightened few days after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar left the APC with clear indications that he would also be heading back to the PDP.



A source close to Kwankwaso in Kano, who preferred not to be named, said, “I can remember that Senator Kwankwaso and some PDP bigwigs, including the party’s National Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi and Abdul Ningi had met in Kaduna and Abuja respectively and discussed politics,” he said.

Other sources said that some of the party’s chieftains were more disposed to Kwankwaso than any other.
“Kwankwaso came second to President Muhammadu Buhari during the APC’s primaries ahead of 2015 general elections and he has a towering image in many geo-political zones and therefore an asset for the PDP,” one of the sources said.

He said that was why he was being approached by some notables so that in the event the APC fielded Buhari, the contest would be “fierce and competitive with Kwankwaso as PDP flag bearer.”

Asked to comment on the purported talks, the Chairman of PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, said in a text message: “Like Atiku, PDP will welcome Kwankwaso back to the party and all others who left are welcome.”
Jibrin, however, did not re-act to whether the ex-Kano governor would be granted waiver to contest the presidential ticket.

But a former Deputy ‎National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Barrister Abdullahi Jalo, told our correspondent in a telephone interview, yesterday, that the earlier Kwankwaso returned to the PDP, the better for him.

Alhaji Sharu Garba Gwammaja, a diehard supporter of Senator Kwankwaso, said, “I am in total support of Kwankwaso’s return to the PDP since from all indications he cannot get what he wants in the APC. He should, therefore, dump the party and the best political party he can join to play his politics perfectly is the PDP.”