By Editor
KANO — The political structure of Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso in Kano suffered a major blow on Saturday as former senators Rufa’i Sani Hanga and Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, alongside Senator Mas’ud El-Jibrin Doguwa and 136,038 other politicians, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).The defectors were formally received into the ruling party during the unveiling of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s campaign groups in Kano ahead of the 2027 general elections, in a development that further deepened the state’s ongoing political realignment.Hanga, a former senator and prominent figure in the Kwankwasiyya political movement, joined the APC alongside Gaya, while Doguwa, chairman of the NNPP “Fruit Faction”, also abandoned the opposition party with his supporters.The mass movement also attracted the Deputy Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kano State, Hon. Ali Datti Yako, and several members of the party’s state executive committee, adding another layer to the growing wave of defections into the APC.Other prominent entrants included former Ungogo Local Government Chairman, Hon. Badaru Umar, members of the political camp of the 2023 APC governorship candidate, Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, and former Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Isyaku Ali Danja, who defected with his supporters.The list further featured former PDP deputy governorship candidate, Hon. Yusuf Bello Danbatta; former Special Adviser to the President, Senator Baraka Sani; NNPP “Book Faction” chairman, Hon. Abdullahi Zubairu Abiya; and former NNPP senatorial candidate, Senator Abdulmajid Dauda Dandawaki.Also joining the APC were Hon. Kabiru Adamu Kofar Ruwa, an NDC candidate for the Kano State House of Assembly, and several other politicians and supporters drawn from different political groups across the state.The development is expected to strengthen the APC’s grassroots machinery across Kano’s 44 local government areas as the party intensifies mobilisation for the 2027 presidential, governorship and National Assembly elections. The latest defections come on the heels of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s movement from the NNPP to the APC, followed by the defection of lawmakers and political appointees.With politicians from the Senate, House of Representatives, state legislature, local government administration and opposition party structures now moving into the APC, Saturday’s mass defection represents one of the most significant political realignments in Kano since the 2023 elections and could reshape the state’s political battle ahead of 2027.
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