Ganduje says Kwankwaso will be welcome to return to APC after elections when Buhari has won

KANO State's Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has said he will admit his predecessor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso back into the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) after the forthcoming elections.

Currently the lawmaker representing the Kano Central Senatorial District, Senator Kwankwaso left the ruling APC last year and defected to the main opposition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He sought the presidential ticket of the APC but lost out to former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who will be standing against President Muhammadu Buhari in next week's elections.

Since leaving the APC, however, Senator Kwankwaso and Governor Ganduje have had a very public falling out, with the governor, who used to be his deputy even stopping him from campaigning in the state at one stage. In what looks like a mellowing of his position, Governor Ganduje has promised to receive his Senator Kwankwaso back if he decides to return to the APC after the elections.

However, Governor Ganduje made it clear that this would only be after the 2019 elections, so Senator Kwankwaso does not brag that he influenced the APC’s victory. Speaking while receiving Alhaji Ibrahim Na-Kaduna, the chairman of the PDP from Yalwa Ward in Dala Local Government Area, Governor Ganduje said Senator Kwankwaso only left the APC because he wanted to run for president.  

Governor Ganduje added: “In the APC, we take all as human beings and we treat them with all manner of dignity and respect. That is why we are doing our best to woo new entrants into our fold, even Kwankwaso we wanted him to come and rejoin our party.

“When he was planning to come back, he came with a condition that we must support his candidate for the presidency. We told him point-blank that as far as we are concerned there is no vacancy in the villa as we made him understand vividly clear that we could not support any other candidature apart from that of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“When he saw the handwriting on the wall clearly, which is so because we told our president not to take any serious action and not to even entertain him, until after the general elections. If we accept him before elections, he could beat his chest at the end of it and boast that he made the victory possible."