The National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has dismissed claims that the party sold 69 nomination forms in Kano to 2027 vice presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Baba-Ahmed made the clarification on Tuesday during an interview on ARISE Television, where he said the report was “complete fiction” and had no basis within the party’s operations.
“This is complete fiction. The real state chairman of the PRP in Kano had already stated, released a statement saying this is just complete bunkum,” he said.
The controversy emerged amid reports from a self-proclaimed Chairman of the PRP in Kano state, Abdulkadir Musa-Guza, who alleged that Kwankwaso or his associates had bought forms for all 69 elective positions in Kano to allegedly hijack the party structure ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Speaking at a press briefing at the NUJ Press Centre, Kano, Musa-Guza alleged the former Kano State governor engaged in a mischievous mission against the party without any sign of him defecting to PRP.
However, Baba-Ahmed said there is no possibility that Kwankwaso could have purchased 69 nomination forms from the PRP in Kano, noting that the party does not sell nomination forms at the state level.
“There is no way former Governor Kwankwaso could have bought 69 forms from the PRP in Kano. We don’t sell forms in Kano; we sell forms from Abuja. The man who spoke and said they had sold 69 forms to Kwankwaso is not known to the party at all. He has no position; he has no authority to sell any forms. We don’t know him,” Baba-Ahmed said.
He suggested that the allegation may have been politically motivated.
“It is possible that this entire thing has been contrived as part of some problems or some politics in Kano. As far as the PRP is concerned, we sold forms, as we sell to everybody else from Abuja. We sold forms to candidates from Kano. They registered, they contested, they went through primaries more than a month ago.
“The candidates have emerged from there, and we are forwarding their names to INEC,” he added.
Baba-Ahmed said even Kwankwaso was surprised by the claim.
“I’ve spoken to Kwankwaso myself, and he is as amused as everybody else that he would buy 69 forms for non-existent candidates. He’s not a member of the party,” he said.
The PRP chairman also addressed questions about previous defections involving Kwankwaso and NDC presidential candidate, Peter Obi, saying discussions had taken place but no formal move was made.
“They did come to our party. We spent some time discussing whether they could come into the party, whether they could join the party. In the end, they decided that there wasn’t enough evidence on the ground that their needs would be met by the party. And they moved on, and we parted as friends, and we’re still friends with them,” he said.
On reports of internal crisis, Baba-Ahmed dismissed claims of factionalism within the PRP.
“The PRP has no faction. We came through a very difficult, very demanding time where both from within and from outside there were efforts to cripple us.
“The failure by INEC to upload our names after our successful convention, observed by INEC, for more than a month caused us some problems. But we came through that. As I speak to you now, we’re a very healthy party.
“We’re looking forward to a very vigorous and very transparent competition. And we believe that our chances are very bright that the PRP will make a difference this time,” he said.
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