‘Kwankwaso Not Stepping Down For Tinubu, He Has Inherited Buhari’s 12 Million Northern Votes’

The presidential campaign council of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has insisted that he is not planning to drop his ambition and back that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television, a former House of Representatives member and Kwankwaso’s campaign spokesperson, Abdulmumin Jibrin, described such reports as false.

Dismissing claims that Kwankwaso might ask his supporters to vote for Tinubu, the former lawmaker said the former governor is not considering merging with the APC.

He said his principal now controls the northern votes of President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that no presidential candidate can beat Kwankwaso in the country’s northern region.

Jibrin said: “We have debunked these lies over and over again. It is an attempt to give a wrong impression to the public for one or two parties to be able to raise their standing in public.

“Kwankwaso is a practical politician. We are serious-minded people. We are not in this race for anyone, and I have said it over and over again.

“People should disregard all these rumours that ‘Kwankwaso is working for Asiwaju, We are going to merge with APC.’

“How will he do that? Somebody who is controlling the heart of the north. Somebody who is the beneficiary of the 12 million Buhari’s votes.

“Kwankwaso is the most popular person, most loved. He is the person who is going to control those votes. Now, look at the dynamics of the election today; there is no sitting governor in the northern part of the country that is contesting for the presidency, so every governor has its peculiar challenges in his state.

“What the governors are interested in is to deliver their states. They know it is dangerous for you within your states to say you are going against Kwankwaso because Kwankwaso has his own direct connection with the masses.

“In the entire northern part of the country, nobody is going to get the quantum of votes, Kwankwaso is going to pull out.”