By Omeiza Ajayi

The battle for the political soul of Kano State may not be ending soon, following the renewed onslaught launched by the Dr Abdullahi Ganduje-led All Progressives Congress APC to make sweeping inroads into the ruling party in the state, the New Nigeria Peoples Party NNPP.

Late last month, a serving Senator, Sulaiman Kawu Sumaila had led other high profile politicians from the Kano NNPP to the APC. Among them were Hon. Kabiru Alhassan Rurmum, Representing Rano/Kibiya/Bunkure Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Abdullahi Sani Rogo, Rt. Hon. Zubairu Hamza Massu, member Kano State House of Assembly, and Dr. A B. Baffa Bichi, former Secretary to the State Government,

Others were Hon. Mohammed Digol, a former Commissioner in Kano state government, Hon. Abbas S. Abbas, a former Commissioner in Kano state, Hon. Sha’aban Ibrahim Lawal, a former governorship candidate, Hon. Badamasi Ayuba Danbatta, a former member, House of Representatives, and Hon. Idris Dankuwa, also a former member, House of Representatives.

While the move has further depleted the ranks of the NNPP, Dr Ganduje, himself a former Governor of the state, believes that the NNPP is now dead.

According to him, even the leader of the party, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, also a former Governor of the state, has now run out of political oxygen and gasping for breath, looking for political rehabilitation in the APC.

“The NNPP is dead and it will soon be buried. Very, very soon. I am looking at where we will bury the body. The coffin has already been constructed. What remains now is to dig the grave, and already, they are digging the grave. Very, very soon.

“Even at that, the so-called NNPP national leader, he too, he says after losing everyone, he wants to come back to us. We will welcome him because he is coming back home.

“When a fish is running out of water, that is exactly what is happening. If the water is drying, the fish has to find its way to water. So, that is what is happening. I will not say we are not ready to welcome him”, Ganduje said at two separate meetings in Abuja.

Also, the Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development, Yusuf Abdullahi Ata who rejected the reported planned defection of Kwankwaso to the APC, said the NNPP leader is greatly embattled.

“It is hard for you to find red caps in Kano. Before now, if you visit the mosque you will see many red caps but today you can visit a mosque and if 5000 people come for prayers, you cannot see 20 red caps in Kano.

“Kwankwaso is no longer relevant in Kano. He is only coming to APC, not that we invited him, because he is going to die politically. He is no more attractive”, said Ata.

While many believe that the development could affect governance in the state, the Kano State NNPP chairman, Hashim Dungurawa, described the defections as good riddance to bad rubbish.

According to him, those who left the NNPP are traitors who had been suspended from the party and were on the verge of being investigated.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was recently quoted by ace comedian, Atunyota Alleluya Akpobome, popularly known as Ali Baba, as saying that one needs seven governors to win a presidential election in Nigeria. He listed the governors as those of Lagos (for its population and Internally Generated Revenue IGR), Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa (for their resources), Kaduna and Kano (for their population) and then the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN.

Not a few analysts believe that the unending game of thrones in Kano state is one way of getting Kwankwaso and the state governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, to do the needful an support the APC.

On whether the fake of defections is a plot by the APC to turn the country into a one-party state, National Secretary of the APC, Senator Ajibola Basiru dismissed such allegations, saying those coming to the party are being attracted by President Bola Tinubu’s developmental strides.

Addressing some of the defecting lawmakers at the National Secretariat of the party on Thursday, Basiru said; “Your coming to the party is as a result of your realization that you need to work with President Bola Tinubu to deliver on n the Renewed Hope Agenda. “Somebody who has moved through about four parties within a decade was saying that people are moving into the APC due to stomach infrastructure. That is not true. We won’t allow anybody to blackmail us that we want to turn Nigeria into a one party state”.

The Kano state Commissioner for Information, Comrade Ibrahim Waiya, when contacted by Saturday Vanguard, said he would get back.

As of Press time, he was yet to get back to Saturday Vanguard.