Kwankwaso: I Won’t Participate in Arewa Interactive Session

John Shiklam in Kaduna and Juliet Akoje in Abuja

Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, said he would not attend the Interactive session with presidential candidates organised by Arewa Joint Committee scheduled for today.

Speaking through his spokesman, Hon. Abdulmumin jibrin Kofa, the presidential hopeful also urged the Arewa Joint Committee to desist from endorsing any presidential candidate at the planned  interactive session.

According to a letter signed by the spokesman, he stated that the campaign group had credible information in its possession that showed that some people have been compromised and had concluded plans to turn the event into an endorsement platform for a particular candidate.

The statement stated: “We believe that it is very wrong for any group to clandestinely plan to endorse any candidate in the name of the North, especially, when we have more than one candidate from our region. And our candidate enjoys more acceptability amongst the Northern masses and across the country than any other candidate.

“It’s common knowledge that Nigerians especially, Northerners will come out in mass to vote for him, because of the trust they reposed in him, because of his track record, his competence, his empathy, educational qualification and his wealth of experience.

“Do not forget that our candidate has 17-years experience in the civil service; he was the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representative; he was a Senator of the Federal Republic; he was Governor of Kano State for 8 years; he was Special Envoy to Somalia and Darfur; he was Minister of Defence, and he was member of Constitutional Conference, NDDC representing Northwest etc.”

The statement added that no one, among all the candidates, has the combination of experiences at the executive, legislative, diplomatic, civil service as well as security levels like Kwankwaso.
The NNPP presidential candidate also advised the the organizers of the session not to do anything that would ridicule the legacies of Sir Ahmadu Bello and other famous Northern leaders like Sir Tafawa Balewa, Malam Aminu Kano, Sir Kashim Ibrahim, and JS Tarka and others by attempting to endorse an unpopular candidate at the expense of a more competent, more experienced and more credible one.