PDP Crisis: Why Atiku may lose Kano’s votes in 2023 election

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), may not be able to gather reasonable votes in Kano in the 2023 election.

Kano state is one of the highest voting blocs in Nigeria that recorded over 2 million votes from 5 million registered voters during the 2019 general election.

Though Buhari won the state in 2019 gathering over 1 million of the 2 million votes Atiku risked the chances of winning the state in the 2023 election.

On Thursday, December 22, a federal high court in the state declared Muhammed Abacha from the Abacha dynasty as the authentic governorship candidate of the PDP in Kano.

Justice A M Liman of the court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise and publish Abacha’s name as the PDP governorship candidate for Kano in the 2023 election.

The judgment, which was delivered on zoom, restrained Sadiq Wali to stop parading himself as the governorship candidate of the PDP in Kano.

However, Atiku and the national working committee of the PDP recognised Wali as the governorship candidate of the party in Kano.

The controversial development had pitched Atiku’s chances in Kano in the 2023 election at a lower help as the presidential hopeful has never supported Abacha’s ambition.

The judge ruled that the votes cast for Abacha during the primary conducted by the Sagagi-led factional chairman of the PDP in the state remained lawful.