There was confusion at the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday as the national chairman of the party, Abdullahi Ganduje and the Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development, Yusuf Ata clashed over the purported planned defection of a former Governor of Kano State, Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso to the APC.

While the Minister said Kwankwaso, a former Minister of Defence is no longer attractive in Kano State and is on the way to political extinction, Ganduje said the APC may not reject him because “a friend in need is a friend indeed.”

Ata in an interview with journalists after a meeting with Ganduje at the Secretariat of the APC in Abuja, said it was due to his present political predicament that Kwankwaso was struggling to join APC, saying his ‘Kwankwasiya Movement’ was dying in Kano.

According to him, except Ganduje who is the leader of APC in Kano State agrees, Kwankwaso, the leader of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), cannot be welcomed to the APC.

Minister Ata said, “Kwankwaso is no longer active in Kano. He is only coming to APC, not that we invited him. I am assuring you and even Mr President has all his records from the grassroots in Kano. He is no more attractive, no more alternative. So, he is struggling to be accommodated in the APC. That may bring a lot of crisis in the APC in Kano State state. This is our position, unless it is a decision from our father to accommodate him.

“I was in the House of Assembly in 1999 when Kwankwaso was the Governor. So I know Kwankwaso very well. He is no more attractive in Kano. We have no deal unless the National Chairman said yes, and as a leader, we should accommodate him.”

But Ganduje said APC may not reject Kwankwaso, given that as somebody who has been abandoned, he should not be allowed to wallow in darkness.

He said, “When a fish is running out of water, that’s exactly what is happening. If the water is drying, the fish has to find its way to water. So, that is what is happening. I will not say we are not ready to welcome him.

“When you see your son running to where he would get shelter and you are a big brother in a big home, I think it is morally right to accommodate him.

“So we cannot say we cannot accommodate him because a friend in need is a friend indeed. Somebody who has been abandoned we should not allow him to wallow in darkness.” (AriseNews TV)