Kwankwaso: Lamido, Aliyu committed political suicide by staying in PDP

Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Babangida Aliyu (Niger) received a hard knock from their Kano State counterpart, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, on Sunday.
He said the duo committed a political suicide by not defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In November 2013, five of the seven governors called G7 in the PDP – Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Ahmed Abdulfatah (Kwara), Kwankwaso (Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) – defected to the APC.
Lamido and Aliyu refused to join them. Nyako was later impeached.
To Kwankwaso, if the duo had not been selfish, they would not have been embarrassed by voters in Jigawa and Niger states during the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections.
The Kano governor, who spoke in his office, also said President Goodluck Jonathan “is a good man but misled by bad advisers”.
He said: “The problem of Sule Lamido and Babangida Aliyu is that they made a mistake by not coming to APC with us. I am sure they are loved here more than in the PDP. The truth is that they are not trusted there, and the results of this elections have shown them that they made a huge political mistake.
“They went into parallel direction with their people. Thank God Sule didn’t contest any election; but the results have shown how unpopular their decision was. It would have been unthinkable for Babangida Aliyu to lose election on the platform of APC but see the kind of blow Nigerlites have given him. They would have been more important leaders if they had joined the APC”.
He advised the president-elect, Major-General Muhammadu
Buhari, not to waste his time in setting up probe panels against the PDP when he assumes office on May 29.
“Why should he be beating a dead horse? If I were Buhari, I will not worry myself beating a dead man. We should move forward because expectations in the country are too high. Honestly, President Goodluck Jonathan is a friend and a good man. He is also a friend of the progressives but he allowed himself to be misled by bad advisers”.