The All Progressives Congress (APC) has suffered mass defection as no fewer than 1,000 members have reportedly dumped the party for the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Kano State.
The Spokesperson to the Kano State governor, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa made the revelation on Monday even as the party’s leadership crisis deepened over the weekend when some members of a faction of the party in Minna, the Niger State capital disowned Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as the party leader.
The factional National Chairman of the party, Dr Gilbert Agbo, who led the anti-Kwankwasiyya campaign at the party secretariat in Minna, said Kwankwaso and his Kwankwasiyya group were threats to the progress and existence of the party.
Agbo, who was speaking at the North Central Zonal meeting in Minna, emphasised that Kwankwaso’s suspension by the National Working Committee (NWC) in Lagos automatically terminated his membership and stake in the party.
The factional chairman, who also supervised the burning of the Kwankwasiyya group’s iconic red caps at the secretariat of the party in the state, said the move signified a clear statement of dissociating themselves from Kwankwaso’s faction.
But reacting to the development, Mallam Danladi Umar Abdulhamid, leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement in Niger State, while stating that Kwankwaso remained the national leader of the party under Ahmed Ajuji’s leadership, said Agbo’s national leadership was illegal.
Nevertheless, the APC defectors in Kano were welcomed by the state party chairman, Dr. Hashimu Suleiman Dungurawa, during a ceremony held at the two local governments.
The party used the event to flag off its chairmanship campaign ahead of the upcoming LG elections on October 26.