2019: My declaration will still hold on Wednesday – Kwankwaso

After the denial of his request to use the Eagle Square for his declaration for the presidency, a former governor of Kano State and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has vowed to launch his bid today.

Kwankwaso is seeking to contest the ticket of the PDP ahead of the party primaries.

The Kwankwaso Campaign Organisation said it received a letter dated August 27, 2018 yesterday and signed by Usman Mukhtar Raji for the Integrated Facility Management Services Ltd, the Facility Manager that managed the Abuja International Conference and Eagle Square barely 24 hours to the scheduled presidential declaration, reversing itself in respect of approval granted the organizers of the event.

“We at the Kwankwaso Campaign Organisation see the development as a handiwork of the government in power who will not see anything good in growing our fledgling democracy as no level playing field has been created to allow for viable opposition in the country.

“Even at that, earlier Tuesday morning, the Abuja International Conference and Eagle Square, managed by the Integrated Facility Management Services Ltd refused us access to inspect the premises demanding us to present a police permit, when actual approval for the use of the Eagle Square has been sought and paid for more than one week to the said declaration.

“The above development will in no way dampen our morale to go ahead with the declaration or chicken out as it will only embolden us to legally pursue our fundamental right to freedom of movement and association,” the organisation said.

Meanwhile, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) ordered the police to seal the Eagle Square because they were afraid of the crowd that would grace the Kano State former governor’s declaration for presidency today.  The First Spokesman of the CUPP and National Chairman of the Action Peoples Party (APP), Ikenga Ugochinyere, told newsmen yesterday in Abuja, that the act of preventing opposition leaders from holding such events was shameful and undemocratic.

Similarly, some political associates of Senator Kwankwaso said yesterday that nothing would stop their boss from declaring his presidential ambition today. The spokesperson of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Hajiya Binta Spikin, said that despite the alleged orders by the police to stop the declaration, Kwankwaso would definitely declare his presidential ambition today.

Binta Spikin said no amount of intimidation would stop the scheduled presidential declaration.

Also reacting, Alhaji Haruna Umar Doguwa, said the sudden stoppage of the declaration surprised the followers of Kwankwasiyya group.

Doguwa said, “We have followed due processes and obtained a permission to hold the political gathering at Eagle Square today but unfortunately another order came from the above and stopped the move. This political brutality will not affect the popularity of Senator Kwankwaso.

“We were stopped from Kano to hold political rally and now we were stopped from declaring our presidential ambition. I wonder why this kind of thing is happening under a government that many people expect to be democratic.”

However, a member of the Kwankwaso Campaign Organisation, Mohammed Jamo, told our correspondent in a telephone interview last night that the event would hold at Chida Hotel.