By Aminu Kutama
Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has revealed that he will not be attending the Arewa Joint Committee interactive session with presidential candidates on Monday, in Kaduna.
Several groups like the Arewa Consultative Forum, Arewa House, Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Northern Elders Forum and Arewa Research and Development Project, among others are the organizers of the interactive session.
In a letter signed by his campaign spokesperson, Abdulmumin Jibrin and addressed to the organizers of the joint session, Kwankwaso explained that he has already arranged other campaign activities for the date and his technical team is still working on his policy document, on which the engagement is based.
The former Kano state governor, further alleged that his team is in possession of credible information that some people behind the engagement have been compromised and the event will be used to clandestinely endorse another candidate of Northern extraction.
“We believe that it’s 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,” the statement said.
The statement further alleged that the event was postponed from its earlier date to coincide with the other candidate’s rally in Kaduna State, where the engagement will be held.
Kwankwaso therefore cautioned organizers of the event to desist from endorsing any candidate as it will further polarize then unite the Northern part of the country.
According to the itinerary of the interactive session obtained by Sahelian Times, Mr Kwankwaso was billed to address the gathering on Monday, 17th October 2022, alongside Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP). While, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP had earlier addressed the gathering on Saturday.
