Police Bar Kwankwaso-led PDP Faction from Conducting Guber Primaries in Kano

Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

The police in Kano State yesterday barred the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caretaker committee, loyal to a former governor of the state, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso from conducting governorship primary election.

The caretaker committee, headed by the former Secretary to State Government (SSG), Rabiu Suleman Bichi, was constituted immediately after defection of Kwankwaso, a serving senator, from All Progressives Congress (APC) to PDP.

The committee had not been able to function, following a substantive court order after dissolution of the Umar El-Jibrin Doguwa-led committee by the PDP’s national body recently, who challenged the decision in court.

Our correspondent gathered that after one-day postponement, the PDP national body then ordered that the primary election be conducted yesterday to pick the party’s standard bearer in the forthcoming 2019 elections.

It was learnt that the aspirants screened to participate in the primaries include Jaafar Sani-Bello, Sadiq Wali, Ibrahim Al-Amin (Little), Hafiz Abubakar, Abba Yusuf, Aminu Dabo, and Salihu

However, it was also gathered that the state Police Command had deployed its personnel to the proposed election venue, Marhaba Cinema, Kano since Sunday in order to stop the election from being conducted, based on the court order.

It was gathered that Police officers had been stationed at strategic places around the place in order to disperse any gathering organised by Bichi-led committee.

When contacted, the factional chairman of PDP in Kano, Mas’ud El-Jibrin Doguwa, said the primary election was stopped by the Police following a court order.

He added that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP earlier announced the postponement of the primaries in Kano, Imo and Lagos states.

“The election committee sent to oversee the Kano’s primaries did not call the aspirants and discuss the party’s arrangements of the election. ”The party should have also transmit the list of the delegates to participate in the election, but it has failed to do so.

“These are the problems bedeviling PDP and need to be urgently addressed if we want to retake power in 2019,” He said

But, a staunch member of Kwankwasiyya Group of PDP, Aminu Abdulsalam who is also a running-mate to an aspirant, Malam Abba Kabir Yusuf, accused the Police acting the script of the Federal Government to cripple the party structure in Kano.

According to him, the security agencies have no authority to prevent the opposition party from holding its lawful primaries.