Senator Ibrahim Shekarau may have concluded plans to dump the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and his former ally, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who is also the presidential candidate of the NNPP.

Shekarau, a former two-time governor of Kano State, it was learnt, would quit the party with thousands of his loyalists and associates who have been aggrieved over what they termed ‘being outsmarted’ by Kwankwaso’s group in the party.

However, Spokesman of Shekarau, Mallam Sule Yau Sule, toldNews Express’ Managing Editor, John Nwokocha, on the phone, on Sunday night that his boss, to the best of his knowledge, has not held any meetings with the state Governor, Umar Ganduje, on the issue of quitting the NNPP. He said: “Oga has not had any meetings with Ganduje in recent time”.

But he said authoritatively that Shekarau would clear the air in a press conference today, Monday, August 22.

Shekarau is representing Kano North in the Senate under the APC. He was offered automatic ticket immediately he defected to the NNPP. However, Shekarau and his associates feel aggrieved because the party would not accede to their demands for more elective positions. This development has in the past few weeks created cracks in the Kwankwaso/Shekarau relationship. Also, the development, it was gathered has left the Shekarau group in the party has unsettled.

The tension in the party increased when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deadline for submission of substitution for candidates of political parties for the 2023 elections expired.

The Shekarau loyalists who have continued to demand for equitable sharing of positions began to plot strategies that will protect their interest if they eventually defect.

Speaking on the development also, a former APC Kano chieftain, said he knew that the Kwankwaso/Shekarau alliance would collapse faster than it started.

The ex-APC chieftain who spoke on the phone too, said he and his group are more aggrieved than anybody in the APC. He said that they had to defect from the APC immediately after the party's national convention a couple of months ago.

He said they could not continue to stomach the treatment meted to party men, which included non-implementation of agreements.

Efforts to speak with the national chairman of the NNPP, Prof Alkali Rufai, were futile. He did not respond to several phone calls put across to him. It was later learnt that he was under the weather. Similarly, efforts to speak with the party’s national publicity secretary, Mr Major Agbo, were fruitless. He did not answer the several calls to his phone.