Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State has oined the All Progressives Congress (APC) after quitting the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
This is coming barely three days after he resigned from the NNPP, on whose ticket he was elected in 2023, citing protracted internal crises and legal disputes, which he said have weakened the party’s cohesion nationwide.
It was reported that the governor was set to rejoin the APC on Monday, after resigning from the NNPP.
Earlier, the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Jibril Ismail Falgore; his deputy, Hon. Muhammad Butu- Butu; the Majority Leader, Hon. Lawan Hussain; and 19 other lawmakers defected from the to the APC.
In 1999, the then Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso then a member in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), appointed Yusuf as his personal assistant. Kwankwaso retained his protege in the same capacity when he became a Minister in 2003.
Yusuf became Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport in 2011, when Kwankwaso returned for a second term as governor.
In 2018, Yusuf was endorsed by Kwankwaso to challenge the incumbent governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, having fallen out with the former deputy governor whose election in 2015 he supported to succeed him ss governor.
A candidate of the PDP, Yusuf lost the 2019 governorship election to Ganduje of the APC. He challenged the result at the election tribunal, but his petition was dismissed.
In 2022, Yusuf moved from the PDP to the NNPP where he was again endorsed by Kwankwaso to challenge APC’s Nasir Yusuf Gawuna, Ganduje’s deputy. Yusuf was declared winner of the governorship election on 20 March 2023.
