Katsina PDP Guber Candidate Denies Withdrawing from Race

*Accuses APC of circulating fictitious documents

Francis Sardauna in Katsina

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Katsina State, Senator Yakubu Lado, has dismissed rumour making the rounds that he had withdrawn from the governorship race.

Lado, who dismissed the rumour in a telephone interview with THISDAY, yesterday, accused some persons in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for allegedly orchestrating the withdrawal rumour for what he termed fear of looming defeat.

On Wednesday evening, a now-viral press release appeared on social media with the claim that Lado had withdrawn from the governorship race because chieftains of his party were working for APC and Governor Aminu Bello Masari-led government.
In the release sighted by THISDAY, the author claimed that Lado’s withdrawal from the race was unanimously agreed by elders and stakeholders of the opposition PDP in the state.

But Lado, during the telephone interview, described the statement as fake and an attempt by mischief makers from the APC to discredit his candidature and truncate his ‘overwhelming popularity’ ahead of the March 18 governorship poll.

“APC knows that they cannot win the election. That’s why they have resorted to circulating fictitious and forged documents to deceive our teeming supporters that I have withdrawn from the race. It’s a fake press release. Disregard it, please,” he said.

He also urged PDP faithful in the state not to be swayed by the rumours plotted by those he described as disgruntled elements, who forged the signature of his campaign Director, Dr. Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa, in order to indicate that he had withdrawn from the race.
Also, the state’s PDP campaign media committee chairman, Alhaji Kabir Yusuf-Yar’Adua, in a statement dismissed the insinuations that Lado had withdrawn from the governorship race.