The National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has said former presidential candidates, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, did not join the party because they could not secure guarantees over the presidential ticket.
PrimeTimes Nigeria reports that Baba-Ahmed disclosed this on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.
According to him, both politicians raised concerns about whether the party could guarantee them the presidential and vice-presidential tickets.
“Well, they had issues about whether the party can guarantee that they emerge as presidential and vice presidential candidates,” he said.
He added that the two politicians also demanded assurances that key party positions would be allocated to their supporters.
“They had questions about whether we could guarantee that a huge number of places could be made available to them because they are coming in with a movement into our party,” Baba-Ahmed stated.
The PRP chairman further said Obi and Kwankwaso were worried about the Independent National Electoral Commission’s delay in recognising the party’s national executive.
Baaba-Ahmed added, “They also had issues with the fact that INEC deliberately refused to upload our new executive, me and my colleagues, for a long time.
“I think they were right there that it represented some worry that we had a problem with INEC. So they moved on.”