Shehu Sani, former senator has disclosed his reason for rejoining the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Gatekeepers News reports that the former Senator shed more light on his decision while speaking on Hard Copy, a programme on Channels Television.
Sani who previously represented Kaduna Central in the senate, resigned from the APC in October 2018 over controversies surrounding the party’s primaries.
He later decamped to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and secured the party’s senatorial ticket but lost 2019 election to Uba Sani, Governor of Kaduna state.
Speaking on Friday, the former senator said he mended bridges to facilitate his return to the APC.
He said, “A circumstance led to our mass exit from the APC sometime in 2018, and that circumstance has changed, and then we rejoined the APC in Kaduna state.”
“First of all, I was a founding member of APC, particularly in Kaduna state. We established structures, and we did the campaigns and won the 2015 elections both at the senatorial and the governorship levels, and somewhere along the way, we parted ways with the governor (Nasir el-Rufai) in the state.”
“We parted ways over differences that are both political, personal and also issues that affect the state, and for that reason we had to evict ourselves out of the party and then now we have a new governor who reached out to us.”
“A Governor who has been making consultations, building bridges across the state and then we also met and agreed that we should return to the party that we founded in Kaduna state.”
Recall that Sani and some members of PDP and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) joined the ruling APC on Febraury 16 in Kaduna.
The former senator also alleged that el-Rufai was responsible for APC’s defeat in Laduna in the 2023 presidential election.
Atiku Abubakar of PDP had 554,360 votes, defeating Bola Tinubu, APC candidate who had 399,293 votes to finish second, while Peter Obi of Labour Party polled 294,494 votes to claim third place.
Sani criticised the former Kaduna Governor for
failing to reconcile the various factions within the APC in the state.
He said, “From my understanding, the former governor of Kaduna state is disgruntled and pained-it’s part of the crisis of entitlement and expectations.”
“But as I posted on my X page, Nasiru was governor for eight years and couldn’t deliver Kaduna to Tinubu. The results are there.”
“If Nasiru claims he delivered for Tinubu, the figures say otherwise. For the first time, under him, APC lost all three senatorial seats to PDP.
“Out of 14 house of representatives seats, PDP won nine, Labour two, and APC only three.”
“He also claims to have brought Uba Sani to office, but let’s check the numbers-PDP’s Isa Ashiru got 719,000 votes, Uba Sani 730,000, just 11,000 difference. Kaduna didn’t vote for Uba because of Nasiru; in fact, Uba lost votes because of him.”
“This was a man campaigning for Uba on one hand while publicly ridiculing him on the other.”
“Does he believe in reconciliation? When the APC crisis in Kaduna lasted seven years, the party sent Aminu Masari, Segun Oni, Inua Abdulquadri, and John Oyegun to mediate-he refused all.”
“His refusal to reconcile with APC forces in Kaduna led to major losses. If he truly believes in reconciliation, why didn’t he practise it in his own state?”
