By Ismail Auwal
The senatorial candidate for Kano Central District of the New Nigerian People Party (NNPP), Rufa’i Hanga, was left off of the final lists of senatorial candidates released by the Independent National Election Commission’s (INEC).
The electoral commission published the name of a former governor of the state, Ibrahim Shekarau, as the NNPP candidate for the central district in place of Hanga whose name was submitted to the INEC by the party.
The NNPP initially submitted Shekarau’s name a sitting senator for Kano central district, was elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), name to the INEC as its senatorial candidate for Kano Central district.
Shekarau left APC and joined the NNPP he remained there for a short time, and then left to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because of his major disagreements with the NNPP’s presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
The INEC had maintained that because Shekarau had not formally notified it as required by the electoral legislation that he had left the NNPP and was no longer its candidate for the district, it was not possible to substitute another name for his.
