“The reconciliation being embarked upon by the All Progressives Progress (APC) is too little and it is coming a little too late because, in Kaduna, the people have decided to throw away the baby with the bath water. God gives power. It is apparently clear that with our exit, APC has lost power in Kaduna, come 2019.”

These were the exact words of Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, representing Kaduna North, as he formally bade farewell to the APC, a party he helped to ascend to power in 2015. He told Sunday Sun in an exclusive interview last Thursday that he made every efforts to remain in the party, but the party was unwilling to accommodate him and members of his group.

Sunday Sun gathered that Hunkuyi provided the structure that enabled Mallam Nasir el-Rufai to defeat former member of the House of Representatives, Isa Ashiru, at the party’s governorship primary. He also went ahead to deliver el-Rufai during the governorship contest in the state ahead of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Hunkuyi was the director-general of the party’s campaign council in the state. However, it is not clear how far Hunkuyi can go in his quest to stop el- Rufai from being re-elected in 2019, as long before now there were reports that the governor had secured the blessing of President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term.

Providing an insight into what awaits the APC and el-Rufai in 2019, a former Commissioner for Education and Chairman of the Akida faction of APC in Kaduna State, Tom Maiyashi, described the report of Buhari’s endorsement of el-Rufai for a second term as “laughable and ridiculous.”

In a recent interview, he argued that even if the president would use a ladder to present the governor to the world, people’s verdict would determine whether he would return or not, saying that the governor has inflicted “terror” on the people of the state.

According to him, “people are leaving the APC not because they don’t like the party, but because they don’t like el-Rufai and his undemocratic ways. And since politics is about people, we have no choice, but to leave. After all that happened at our ward congress and all that had happened in the past, we were left with two options: to either quit politics and die politically or continue in politics and save our people from the tyranny of el-Rufai and the APC, we chose the latter.

“Our political fate will be decided by God and the electorate in 2019. Whatever belongs to God belongs to the people. Buhari’s no-go areas are heavily pregnant and can deliver anything. North-West is the lifeline of Buhari and APC. With the crisis at hand in this zone, Buhari cannot replicate the margin of votes he had in 2015 in Kaduna and Kano in 2019. The reconciliation being embarked upon by the APC is too little and it is coming a little too late because in

Kaduna, the people have decided to throw away the baby with the bath water. God gives power. It is apparently clear that with our exit, APC has lost power in Kaduna, come 2019. Since the convergence point clearly is the PDP, we have no doubt, but to congratulate the PDP for being able to attract all these personalities and brains that would help it form the government in 2019.

“APC will have to bear the consequences of siding with el- Rufai against thousands of party’s faithful who sacrificed time, energy and resources to make APC win in 2015. El-Rufai’s matter has gone even beyond the party members; he has issues with journalists, with the general public, teachers, civil servants and the traditional institution, among others.

•Excerpted from the Sun report

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