Ganduje hasn’t contacted Abba Yusuf over request to join APC, says aide

Sunusi Bature Dawakin, director-general of media and publicity in the office of Abba Yusuf, governor of Kano state, says his principal has not been contacted by Abdullahi Ganduje, national chair of the All Progressives Congress (APC), over joining the APC. 

Dawakin said this in reaction to comments credited to Ganduje who said he had asked the Kano governor to abandon the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) for the APC.

“We are appealing to those who want to join APC to come,” the APC national chair had said.

“In particular, we are inviting the Governor of Kano and his NNPP to join APC.”

Speaking on the BBC Hausa service on Friday, Dawakin said they only learnt of the invitation via social media.

The director-general said as a former governor and former deputy governor, Ganduje knows the right channels to get to his principal.

“We learned about the invitation on social media, but Dr Ganduje, as a former Governor and former deputy governor, knows more than any other person how to send a message to an incumbent governor, appropriately,” he said.

Dawakin said Yusuf is yet to take any position on whether he would join the ruling party or not.

President Bola Tinubu is reportedly working to reconcile Ganduje and Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano.

Kwankwaso and Yusuf defected to the NNPP before the 2023 polls where they both pursued presidential and governorship bids respectively.

While the former governor was not successful with his presidential bid, Yusuf was declared winner of the gubernatorial election which has now been affirmed by the supreme court.