Kano Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso says former EFCC chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, is now a laughing stock among PDP members in Adamawa state, alleging that the party dumped him in the recent governorship primary for the October 11 by-election.
Ribadu had defected from APC, of which Kwankwaso is a member, to the PDP and declared his intention to seek the governorship of Adamawa.
But after a meeting of PDP governorship aspirants last week, Ribadu withdrew from the primary and opted to take part in the next primary which will determine the party’s candidate in the 2015 general election.
The winner of the October by-election will only serve till May 2015 to complete the tenure of the impeached governor. However, Kwankwaso said in Kano on Wednesday that Ribadu had been dumped by the PDP. “After he left the APC for the PDP, his new party did not find him worthy of its gubernatorial ticket.
I am sure the PDP stakeholders in Adamawa are now laughing at him. We sympathise with him,” Kwankwaso said while receiving merit awards from APC Kwankwasiyya Amana (Bauchi state chapter) and Nigeria 774 Kwankwasiyya Merger.
Both groups re campaigning for Kwankwaso to be president in 2015. He called on the Adamawa electorate to vote for the APC candidate in the by-election, “considering the hardships caused to the state by PDP central government”.
“Anybody who voted for PDP, which within five years could not lead the nation rightly, has deceived himself,” he said. The Adamawa election is expected to be a straight contest between PDP’s Ahmadu Fintiri, who is the acting governor, and APC’s Bindo Jibrilla.
Kwankwaso left PDP for APC last year after the crisis that rocked the ruling party.