The Northern Liberal Democratic Movement (NLDM) has called on the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Musa Kwankwaso to step down for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The group claimed that the mood and opinion of stakeholders in the country is in favour of Atiku who was in a better position to win the contest irrespective of Kano’s decision.
In a statement its National Secretary, Balarabe Bello released in Abuja yesterday, the group said apart from the mood of the people of the region, there was a current reality prompting many chieftains and members of the NNPP dumping the party for the PDP across the region in anticipation of a likely Atiku victory in February.
The NNPP had lost its chieftains to the PDP with the recent being its deputy governorship candidates in Niger and Yobe States as well as its State Chairman in Kaduna and Zonal Secretary in the North-east, who defected with scores of their supporters.
No fewer than 700,000 members of the party are also said to have defected to PDP in Bauchi State, North East zone of the country.
The group asked Kwankwaso to listen to the counsel of many stakeholders in the region and throw in the towel in favour of the former Vice President “who many see as well placed to win the February.”
In a swift reaction, however, the National Chairman of NNPP, Prof Alkali Rufai said the presidential candidate “is in the race to win as Kwakwanso is the candidate with the reach, experience and structure to win the February election.
“NNPP will shock PDP in the north as the youths are waiting on it to reinvigorate the country. Those who depend on religion and ethnicity in the forthcoming presidential election will be disappointed.
“NNPP will win in the three zones of the north and go further to get votes in the South that will complete its victory,” former PDP National Publicity Secretary.
