By Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna

The Chieftain of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Sule Galadima, has said that a former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, is a placeholder for a former Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, in Social Democratic Party (SDP).

He said the arrangement is in place in case Atiku fails to get the 2027 PDP presidential ticket.

Galadima said this after a coalition of opposition politicians paid solidarity visit to former President Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna on Friday.

In a statement, he said, “Did El-Rufai win even one local government in Kaduna in 2020? He was still governor at the time. Yet, the PDP won all three Senate seats.

“While he was still governor, PDP also won 12 out of 14 House of Representatives seats — his party got only one, and Labour Party got the other. Now that he’s no longer in power and is even opposing the current governor from outside, how many votes do you think he can realistically get?”

The NNPP leader said, “The SDP coalition is weak, all they’re doing is making noise. El-Rufai is only being used temporarily by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar within the SDP.”

He noted, “It’s surprising to see Atiku planning to work with El-Rufai. This is the same El-Rufai who once advised Atiku to save his money for his children and declared that Atiku would never become Nigeria’s president.”

However, he explained that “in the 2027 presidential election, the NNPP will be the major platform for uniting opposition parties.”