Sophia Michaels
The governor of Kano state, Abba Kabir Yusuf has been urged to wait for Supreme Court judgement instead of “wasting” the state’s funds sponsoring protests.
The call was made by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano on Thursday, November 30.
The party said Yusuf, who won the governorship election on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) was heavily bankrolling “stage-managed protests, deliberately intended to create tension in the state and make it look like all is not well.”
Ilyasu Musa Kwankwaso, an ex-commissioner for rural and community development, who spoke for APC said: “Stop wasting Kano’s meagre resources and wait for the Supreme Court judgement.”
He noted that nobody would come out to protest Yusuf’s sack by the court after the governor had illegally demolished their property worth billions of naira.
Ilyasu, who addressed a press conference in Kano, said it became pertinent to draw the attention of the public towards some recent important issues unfolding in the state following the Court of Appeal’s affirmation of the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal judgement which nullified Yusuf’s election.
He reminded Yusuf and the public how the APC was declared winner of the March 18 governorship poll and its candidate Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna was declared as the duly elected Governor of Kano state.
He noted: “The same judgement is reaffirmed by the Appeal Court in addition to the judgement declaring Abba Kabir Yusuf as not being a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) at the time the election was held. These judgements were passed by the constitutional provisions and the Electoral Act.”
The former commissioner accused the NNPP and the Kwankwasiyya Movement of “engaging in massive propaganda, thereby insulting the judiciary and trying to instigate political violence in Kano.”
He added: “They (NNPP) spread false claims that Kano state is facing serious tension by funding patches of protests and rallies across the metropolis.
“This is in violation of the Peace Accord that was signed at the Police Command recently, part of which has banned such public assemblies.
“I wish to state in clear terms that the peace and tranquillity enjoyed in Kano, with everyone going about his daily business is a testament that it is not true that there is any tension in the state.
“It is the sponsored protests that are used to falsely create a picture of crises in the state.
“In the meantime, the NNPP is wasting Kano’s meagre resources chasing shadows by taking political issues of the country that are rooted in the Nigerian Laws to ECOWAS, EU, US and other places instead of waiting for the decision of the Supreme Court of the land.
“The worst part of this is that the NNPP is not allowing the teeming masses to rest again.
“After demolishing their billions of Naira worth of property illegally, they are now sponsoring innocent youths to cause tension and chaos in the state
“Kano people cannot be cajoled using sponsored protests because they believe that it is Allah that gives power to whom He wishes and takes it from whom He wishes, and if He takes it from Abba Kabir Yusuf and gives it to Nasiru Yusu Gawuna, so be it.”
Iliyasu noted that the people of Kano were with APC, Gawuna and the national chairman Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
He said: “We won the election and the court detected the invalid votes they (NNPP) mischievously placed during the polls and cancelled them and our victory was returned to us.
“All the protests they are staging are fake and with the deliberate intention of heating the polity and creating undue tension where there is none.
“Everyone is going about his daily business except those paid crowds trying to create tension. After all, who will come out to protest because the court has sacked Abba Yusuf, after demolishing their property?
“This is just a sign that the end has come for them, that is why they are all over the place trying to create unnecessary tension.”
