The Kano State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) says it will go on with its rally on Saturday in Kano, not minding that the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) which is governing the State has also fixed its own rally in the city for same day.
APC stakeholders from Kano State, who briefed journalists in Abuja on Thursday, said it they feared no outbreak of violence because the State is big enough for the two parties to hold their events without any clashes.
Director General Gawuna/Garo Campaign Organization, Alhaji Rabiu Suleiman Bichi, who spoke for the group, said Kano was peaceful throughout the eight-year administration of the APC, and this resulted to rush by various organisations to hold conferences and seminars in the ancient city, as well as bigger inflow of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).
This is being disrupted as residents have been living in fear of intimidation and threat to life and property, since the NNPP came to power there barely six months ago.
Bichi said: “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, who 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 minds 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 also blackmail and harass officials of the former administration.
“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 came up with a 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.
“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.
“It is on this note that we call on the Kano state police command and other security agencies to be alive to their responsibilities and take appropriate measures to avoid loss of lives and property”.
