The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, on Tuesday said members of the defunct new Peoples Democratic Party were not capable of stopping President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election.
El-Rufai who spoke in an interview with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja., said since 2003, Buhari had been winning elections in Adamawa, Kano and Sokoto states where most of the nPDP members hail from.
He however agreed that some of the grievances of the party chiefs were legitimate and should be looked into.
“Who are these new PDP people that are threatening? They are Kwara, Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Rivers but I don’t think Amaechi is part of them.
“So, let’s take these four states, go back to 2003 and check. Buhari then under the ANPP won in all these four states.
“Go back to 2007, Buhari won in these four states. Even when Shekarau was running as a presidential candidate in 2011, Buhari defeated him in Kano.
“I have no doubt in my mind that even if the people threatening to leave decide to leave, it will have absolutely no impact on the presidential election.
“The President will win Sokoto, Kwara and Adamawa easily. Kano is already in the bag, I mean if you saw the crowd that welcomed the President without the former governor Kwankwaso, Kano has always been the President’s base.”
El-Rufai however admitted that some of the grievances expressed by the aggrieved nPDP members were legitimate and should be looked into.
He said the only thing that was wrong was their threat to leave the party, describing politics as a game of addition and not subtraction, saying the party did not have to lose anyone.
However, members of the Alhaji Kawu Baraje-led faction of the defunct new PDP, who are currently in the APC, have said that their letter to the APC leadership is not an empty threat.
The spokesperson for the group, Timi Frank, stated this in interview with reporters in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Frank stated that the group was considering options following the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum given to the APC.
He explained that the group had yet to receive any response either from President Buhari or the APC leadership.
Frank also dismissed insinuations that there was a crack in the nPDP bloc as a result of a counter-letter written by Senator Abdullahi Adamu on Monday.
According to him, the authentic members of the nPDP bloc were not surprised about the antics of the former Nasarawa State governor.
He explained that the senator was better known for his active involvement in the pro-Abacha movement as well as ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s failed third term bid.
Frank said over 95 per cent of the nPDP members gave Alhaji Kawu Baraje the authority to speak on their behalf and as such, the contents of his letter conveyed their feelings.
Asked whether the President or the APC had responded to his group’s letter, Frank said, “Today makes it seven days from the day our group brought this letter to the party. But as it stands, we’ve not got any response yet from them. As we’ve said, whatever we must have said in that letter, it is not an empty threat. If they decide to ignore us, so, be it.
“At the appropriate time, we are going to respond and make our position known to Nigerians based on what we’ve said. It is not just a mere threat; it is not just a mere ultimatum.
“I will tell you we are meeting with our leaders and we are going to come up with a clear position on our next step if finally they don’t attend to us.”
The nPDP spokesman further explained that history appeared to be repeating itself because this was the same way the then ruling PDP ignored calls by some of them to address certain issues.
He said, “We told them why we were aggrieved. Our leaders moved round the states to talk to party members, to ask the government at that time to listen to our views, but at the end of the day, they refused. They ignored us and that was how we left.