From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The Kaduna State chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has described the state governorship candidate of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, as a nomadic politician, and vowed to nail his political coffin in the 2023 general elections.
APC also noted that as an alleged nomadic politician, Hunkuyi has a track record of betrayal and biting the fingers that fed him in the political firmament of Kaduna.
Hunkuyi had claimed that he committed human error by bringing APC to power in 2015, thinking that Nasir El-Rufai would make a very good governor.
The NNPP governorship hopeful at an interactive session on Monday with the officials of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) also described the second tenure of El-Rufai as government by default.
However, in a sharp reaction through a statement on Tuesday, Director of Strategic Communication, Kaduna State APC Campaign Council, Ibraheem Musa described Hunkuyi’s outburst as the ranting of an ant.
According to the statement, “Distinguished Senator Uba Sani, the APC gubernatorial candidate of Kaduna State, will not only defeat Hunkuyi as Senator Suleiman Abdu Kwari did in 2019 but will nail his final political coffin in the 2023 governorship election.
Alhaji Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi is a nomadic politician and his political trajectory is replete with defections, betrayals and biting the fingers that feed him.
“As Commissioner of Finance from 1999 to 2003, he was Governor Ahmed Makarfi’s confidant but he dumped his benefactor and crossed over to the All Nigerian Peoples Party(ANPP) and contested against his boss. Hunkuyi failed woefully at the polls.
“Afterwards, he returned to the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) during the Arch Mohammed Namadi Sambo administration. In 2011, Hunkuyi contested against Governor Patrick Yakowa in the primaries. Again, he lost.
“The self-acclaimed godfather who never won an election since he became chairman of Makarfi Local Government Area during the Babangida regime, however, rode on the Malam Nasir El Rufai’s popularity to be elected Senator in 2015. However, instead of working for the people of Kaduna State, Hunkuyi and his cohort worked against them in the Senate.
Specifically, Kaduna State Government sought for $350 million World Bank loan to bridge its infrastructure deficit but Hunkuyi told the Senate that ‘’the loan is a misplaced priority.’’
“As a payback, the people of Kaduna North Senatorial district voted against Hunkuyi in 2019 for short-changing them.
”Before then, the footloose politician had defected back to the PDP and right now he is the gubernatorial candidate of the New Nigerian People’s Party(NNPP).
“In recent times, Hunkuyi has been granting interviews in the media and emitting the usual hot air and false claim of having made Malam Nasir El Rufai the Governor of Kaduna State in 2015. He repeated this fallacy at an interactive session with representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).”