The former governor of Kano State, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, who recently joined the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, will announce his defection to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in a few hours. The imminent cross-carpeting allegedly comes after a “mouth-watering offer” was made to the Senator.
Senator Shekarau, who represents Kano Central at the Senate, had officially defected from APC to NNPP in a letter read during plenary by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on June 29.
He received an automatic senatorial ticket for his constituency from the NNPP upon joining the party, but was soon considered for the Vice Presidential slot to the Labour Party’s Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, whom he had a meeting with.
The negotiation collapsed without much success when members from both the PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC, began offensive lobbying to recruit the senator into their fold.
In the face of recent developments, however, NNPP leaders learned about Senator Shekarau’s planned defection and commissioned a 3-man delegation comprising the NNPP governorship candidate Abba Kabir-Yusuf, the senatorial candidate of Kano South Kawu Sumaila, and a candidate of House of Representatives Kabiru Rurum, to seek audience with Shekarau on Friday night in Abuja, but he refused to see them.
Reliable sources familiar with Senator Shekarau’s private moves confirmed separate meetings he attended with the PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, and his running-mate Ifeanyi Okowa. Soon after, the national chairman of the party, Sen. Iyochia Ayu, said the former governor had “reached a deal” with the PDP and is expected to formally announce his defection soon.
The former Kano state governor, insider intelligence revealed, has summoned an emergency meeting of his political advisory council, dubbed the Shura Consultative Assembly, and informed them about the latest development. A 21-member committee meeting urgently today, our intelligence further reveals, has been set up to perfect the defection and manage media perception of the unforeseen political turnaround.
Information gathered has equally revealed that part of the last-minute efforts at harnessing the defection is a personal visit of the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar to Mr. Shekarau’s residence.
The crucial difference and the important factor that warranted Shekarau’s defection, our reliable insider confirms, is the quality of proposition made by the PDP in comparison to NNPP’s. Added to the dissatisfaction within Mr. Shekarau’s camp at NNPP’s lack of coverage for their own interest, the camp was more inclined to accept PDP’s “mouth-watering offers”.
“The truth is that Atiku has made some mouth-watering offers such as ministerial and parastatal slots to Mallam. This is in addition to appointing him as the North West campaign coordinator and in charge of campaign finances in the region. The NNPP only offered the senatorial ticket to Shekarau without giving any ticket to Mallam’s associates. So there is deep resentment in among Shekarau’s associates who felt that Mallam only negotiated his senatorial slot alone and did not make efforts for them,” our reliable insider revealed.