Abdulmumin Jibrin Kofa, the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s hopeful in the forthcoming by-election for Kiru/ Bebeji Federal Constituency in Kano State may have run into trouble water as multiple sources believed the party is planning to turn its back against him, PRIME TIME NEWS exclusively gathered.
Recall that a Kaduna appeal court in November, 2019, ruled against Mr Kofa’s victory in the February Presidential and National Assembly elections and ordered that a fresh poll be conducted in the Kiru/Bebeji constituency.
Immediately after the appeal court verdict, Kofa allegedly fell out with the Kano state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the state APC chairman, Abdullahi Abbas and other party officials for allegedly working against him, situation that created speculations that the party would field another candidate for the rerun election.
However, ahead of the January 25 by-election, Mr Kofa seemed to have moved to reconcile with the party leadership in order to support him in the rerun poll, just as he was sighted hobnobbing Mr Ganduje in some government functions.
Even on Monday, when the Supreme Court declared Mr Ganduje as the winner of the March 2019 governorship election, this newspaper has gathered that Mr Kofa was sighted at the government house to congratulate the governor over the victory.
The embattled lawmaker was also caught on camera opening the door of the APC chairman’s car at a place believed to be the government house on Monday, providing impression that all is well between him and the party ahead of the forthcoming by-election.
However, this newspaper gathered that the top echelons of APC in the state are not happy with Mr Kofa’s alleged multiple loyalty to the party and its main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its leader, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
An APC elder in the state, who spoke to PRIME TIME NEWS on condition of anonymity expressed displeasure about Mr Kofa for allegedly working underground for Mr Kwankwaso.
According to him, the party had realised that Mr Kofa had been affront and insubordinate to the party officials, situation that made the elders question his characters and suspected him of working for opposition.
“Kofa is not going to make it in the forthcoming by-election because, we suspect him of working for Kwankwaso. He is certainly working against APC, especially as we have question mark on his attitudes.
” We are going to work against him. We can’t condone insubordination and disloyalty in our party. Any disloyal members would be edged out of our party. If you want to succeed in our party, you have to be loyal to it and its leadership” the source said.
PRIME TIME NEWS also gathered that Mr Kofa had embarked on moves to the APC elders to intervene in his travails, as he was sighted kneeling down for Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, representing Kano South zone in a photo believed to be snapped in Abuja.
All efforts to get reactions from Mr Jibrin proved abortive, as he refused to answe phone call put through to him by our Correspondent, neither did he respond to text message.
