The crisis of Appeal Court election tribunal judgement in Kano State festered on Thursday as the All Progressives Congress (APC) alleged threats of lives of its members.
Since last week when the Appeal Court ruled in favour of APC governorship candidate, there has been different interpretations of the judgment.
Both APC and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) have been laying claim to the judgment of the Appeal Court.
For the NNPP, the judgment of Appeal Court was in its favour, while the APC said the judgment was in its favour with some typographical errors.
The situation has led to tension in Kano State.
Addressing journalist on Thursday in Abuja, the Campaign Director for Dr Nasiru Gawuna, the APC governorship candidate, Engr. Rabiu Sulaiman, said NNPP has vowed to unleash violence on APC members.
“We have it from reliable sources that they are planning a mass protest on Saturday during which key figures of the APC will be targeted, if possible to eliminate them.
“It is on this note that we called the Kano state police command and other security agencies to be alive to their responsibilities and take appreciative measures to avoid loss of life and property.
“We are law-abiding citizens and will not do anything to disturb peace, but we will not hesitate to protect our lives and belongings.”
Speaking further, the APC governorship candidate DG said, “Since the conduct of the 2023 governorship election and the declaration of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as the winner, the ruling APC as peace-loving party, remained calm and shunned any form of violence.
“However, the people of Kano have been living in perpetual fear of intimidation and threat to life and property, since the assumption of office, starting with the orgy of violence by elements of the NNPP, targeted at the All Progressives Congress (APC). Apart from public property, the state headquarters of our party and properties of some leading figures of the APC were torched, all in the name of celebration.
“The APC as a party that has always been promoting the cause of democracy and the rule of law, rejected the outcome of the election and sought to reclaim its mandate through the appropriate channel as laid down in the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“After filing its case at the state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that sat in Kano, the APC patiently pursued it for months up to the pronouncement of the stage where the three-man panel of judges fixed the date for the judgement.
“However, sensing defeat, the NNPP resorted to threatening to kill the judges of the tribunal should the verdict of the court eventually be announced and not in their favour. The threats by the NNPP government’s cabinet members included among others, the Secretary to the Kano State Government, Baffa Bichi, forced the tribunal to deliver its judgement via Zoom for fear of their lives.
“The NNPP government then resorted to sponsored street protests, including embarrassingly the one held in London on which millions of naira were said to have been spent. The aim of the protests to further instil fear in the mind of the people failed, as only a few attended.
“The government of Kano state also set aside millions of naira for propaganda in the media and spreading all sorts of lies and to also blackmail and harassing officials of the former administration.
“They also sustained their attack on the judiciary and cast aspersions on the integrity of the judges.”
Further he spoke, “Gentlemen of the press, things appear to be getting worse since the embattled leader of the NNPP Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso came back to Kano on Sunday, where he held a meeting of the party’s stakeholders, at the end of which they come up with line up of activities that included unleashing of violence to not only eliminate the APC in Kano but also to make it ungovernable in the event of Supreme Court judgement in favour of the APC.”
