The interim leadership of the New Nigeria People’s Party has reaffirmed that Nabil Sarki Aliyu Daneji and Saadu Aminu Saadu remain the party’s valid candidates for the February 21 by-elections into the Kano State House of Assembly.
The by-elections are to fill the vacancies in the Kano Municipal and Ungogo state constituencies created by the deaths of two serving lawmakers.
The party said the names of the two candidates had already been duly forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission, insisting that their nominations were valid and in line with the party’s internal processes.
The NNPP was responding to claims by the spokesperson to the Kano State Governor, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, who had alleged that the emergence of multiple candidates from different NNPP factions justified Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s defection to the All Progressives Congress.
In a statement, the NNPP interim publicity secretary, Engr. Ibrahim Karaye, dismissed the claims, maintaining that the party had officially presented the sons of the deceased lawmakers as its candidates for the by-elections.
Karaye acknowledged that some factional elements, including Senator Mas’ud Jibrin Doguwa, had submitted different names to INEC, but described such actions as illegal and unauthorised.
He stressed that the party dissociated itself from individuals parading themselves as factional chairmen, noting that many of them were either former members whose memberships had been terminated or individuals who had never belonged to the party.
According to him, the NNPP remains under the leadership of Hon. Abdullahi Ibrahim Maikano as acting chairman, adding that Senator Doguwa had never been a member of the party.
He further stated that Hon. Abdullahi Zubairu Abiya’s claim to the party chairmanship became invalid following the dissolution of the Dungurawa-led executives by the party’s National Working Committee.
The NNPP spokesman advised the Kano State Government to focus on governance and policies that benefit the people of the state, rather than engaging in what he described as attempts to rationalise actions perceived by party members as a betrayal of the NNPP and its leadership.
