The opposition New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP in Kano State has written an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari over alleged plans by Abdullahi Ganduje-led government to scuttle the March 11 Governorship/House of Assembly elections in the state.
The letter, signed by the NNPP chairman in Kano, Umar Doguwa, was copied to the National Security Adviser, Minister of Defence, Chief of Defence Staff, Director General, SSS, Inspector-General of Police, European Union and Its Election Observation Mission, British High Commission in Nigeria United States Embassy in Nigeria and members of local and international media.
In the letter, a copy of which was sent to DAILY NIGERIAN, NNPP alleged that the state government had already hired thugs to unleash mayhem on innocent people across the 44 Local Government Areas of the state.
According to the opposition party, the Ganduje-led government had granted pardon to some convicts, who were serving death sentence in order to use them to disrupt the election.
The opposition NNPP, which won 18 out of 24 House of Representatives positions and 2 senators in the February 25 election, also alleged connivance with some staff of INEC to cause delay in distribution of election materials, thereby disenfranchising the electorate.
“As they did during the Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Ganduje group is colluding with bad eggs within INEC and their accomplices among some law enforcement agents to cause a long delay in the distribution of election materials to polling units.
“This shameless act is intended to ensure that majority of voters are disenfranchised. And the ring leader at INEC that is anchoring every nefarious plan of Gandujiya to subvert the will of the people is the Commission’s State Admin Secretary, one Mr. Garba Lawan, who ought to have retired from service months ago, but Mr. Ganduje bribed his way to get him retained illegally so that they can use him, as they did in 2019, to steal the election in Kano state,” the letter reads in part.
The party also alleged that the ruling APC in the state had collaborated with some bad security agents to disrupt collation of the governorship election results and destroy them, adding that they did that in 2019 election.
The letter also alleged that the APC government, in collaboration with what it described as compromised security agents, had perfected plans to arrest key members of the NNPP and detain them until after the election.
The party concluded that it is ready to resist any attempt to steal the people’s mandate as it was done in 2019.
“In Kano state, we will never again, allow the peoples’ mandate to be stolen. They have stolen it in 2019. We restrained our supporters and stopped them from taking to the streets to protest.
“This time around it will be very difficult to restrain our supporters, again. We dare say that any law enforcement agent and any INEC staff, adhoc or not, that will do their work patriotically and professionally without compromising or colluding with Gandujiyya to subvert the peoples mandate is surely a blessing to the good people of Kano state. We make haste to add that anybody that is coming to Kano state to cause mischief and attempt to tamper with election results, will be on their own.
“The Kano NNPP is fully ready. We must, and we will protect the mandate of the people at all cost.
“We pray that Mr. President will make public pronouncement and instruct the law enforcement agencies and all other stakeholders concerned to maintain their neutrality at all levels as well as cautioning them against doing the biddings of any politicians,” the party chairman said.
