The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) is preparing the ground to take Nigeria by surprise in the forthcoming 2023 General elections as a two-time Governor of Kano state, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, announced his decision to join the party, dumping the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Shekarau has now formed a strong alliance with a former Governor of Kano State and presidential hopeful, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, with his Kwankwasiyya movement, to reignite and spread the influence of NNPP in the state and across the country.
This was confirmed on Tuesday via a terse statement on the official Twitter account of the NNPP.
The statement, which reads: “Finally: Sen Ibrahim Shekarau Join Us”, was shared alongside a photo of Senator Shekarau and Senator Ibrahim Kwankwaso.
The move comes after back-and-forth about Shekarau’s defection to the NNPP.
The 66 year-old senator and a former Nigerian minister of education, had been in the news over plans to dump the APC. Some power brokers in the APC, immediately entered negotiations with the former governor, urging him stay with the party, but that has failed to stop Shekarau from quitting APC.
Shekarau’s defection to the NNPP also comes after former member of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin joined the party last week.
Jubrin, who was the Director-General of Bola Ahmed Tinubu 2023 presidential campaign support team, had last week quit the APC.
NNPP has been described as a dark horse that is likely to cause upset for the APC and PDP in Kano following Kwankwaso’s defection to the party from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The party now has about 17 of the 40 House of Assembly members in Kano State, displacing PDP as the opposition party in the state, in less than two months of Kwankwaso’s defection to NNPP.
According to reports, the party is fast gaining ground in Kano and parts of Northwest as it has continued to draw members from the APC and PDP, with many arguing it is positioned to take Kano, a strategic voting population in the 2023 elections.
