Ladipo Johnson, the spokesperson of the presidential campaign of Rabiu Kwankwaso, has disclosed why the former Kano governor rejected an invitation from the Northern Elders Forum for a recent event that it organised for presidential candidates.
Speaking on Channels Television Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, the NNPP (New Nigeria Peoples Party) campaign spokesperson said his principal turned down the invitation over the perceived bias of some of the members of the forum.
“He (Kwankwaso) rejected the Northern Elders’ invitation because he believes he has good reason to believe some of the people involved were supporters of one of the presidential candidates and he has had his fingers burnt before in 2019 by some of those individuals.
“So, he immediately said, no I’m sorry I will not be attending that. Not as a slight to the people of the North or the other organisers,” he explained.
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He also accused those who keep saying that Kwankwaso will collapse his structure for other candidates, of being mischievous.
“I can tell you for certain that these rumours started months ago, so it’s not out of what they see now, it is out of mischief and we have treated this several times, and I keep saying that he has no reason to want to step down for any of the other candidates.
“But we will listen to any of them who think they want to work with us, not us working with them.”
Rabiu Kwankwaso will be contesting against the three heavyweight candidates Peter Obi (Labour Party), Bola Tinubu (All Progressives Congress), and Atiku Abubakar (Peoples Democratic Party) for the presidential seat come 2023.