There is a sort of disquiet in the political firmament of Kano state. What began as a “rumour” has become a topic of several political discussions among political gladiators within Kano state and beyond. Palpable tension gripped residents of the state when news filtered that security operatives had arrested the majority leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado Doguwa.
Doguwa needs no introduction in Kano political space and beyond. He has been remanded in prison after a five-count charge including: “culpable homicide, criminal conspiracy, causing grievous hurt, mischief by fire, and inciting public disturbance.”
The lawmaker was alleged to have been involved in a violent confrontation between members of the New Nigeria People Party (NNPP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) that led to the killing of three people and the burning of a campaign office of the opposition party in the Tudun Wada Local Government Area of Kano. Doguwa had since denied the allegation that supporters of his party — APC were responsible for the fire that gutted the secretariat of the NNPP.
During the briefing, Doguwa said: “I never held a gun. I don’t even know how to hold a gun. I also never held any weapon throughout the election”.
Doguwa who has been on the trail, was arrested at the Mallam Aminu Kano international airport while boarding a flight to Abuja. The police said the lawmaker was arrested and charged alongside other accomplices.
Residents said the violent confrontation also occurred at the Dadin Kowa ward (Doguwa’s ward) when the NNPP agents called for the cancellation of the Dadin Kowa results over alleged incidents of over-voting in the just-concluded presidential and parliamentary elections.
Prior to the February 25th election in Kano, the political events of the past weeks, was more of supremacy battle. Kano remains one of the melting points of Nigeria’s political struggle, and any keen political observer must have seen the handwriting boldly on the wall.
The cracks were open and glaring. The state was under tension with brickbats from the leading political parties, especially APC and NNPP. There were series of hostile verbal exchanges and physical attacks between supporters of the parties.
Beyond the Ganduje-Kwankwaso hostile relationship, another major dilemma was the political feud between Doguwa and Kwankwaso. Although an open secret, the frosty relationship between the political camps of Doguwa and Kwankwaso became more of an open confrontation.
In 2022, Kwankwaso constituted a high-powered four-man committee toward reuniting with Doguwa, with the Kwankwasiyya movement, but it failed to yield positive results.
However, all pretentions gave way to an all-out confrontation between supporters of the duo. The political atmosphere was fraught with animosities and violence. For example, on the day Kwankwaso held his homecoming rally in Kano, the ruling party and two major opposition parties had also mobilised members and loyalists to drum up final support for their presidential and national assembly candidates.
The police authority had to summon the leadership of the three political parties to an emergency meeting where they were cautioned of possible security threats and untoward consequences of the multiple rallies, but they went ahead to hold their rallies.
Doguwa won his constituency — Doguwa/Tudun Wada Federal constituency. He scored 39,732 votes to defeat his closest rival, Salisu Abdullahi of NNPP, who polled 34,798 votes. Kwankwaso won the presidential election in Kano State. Kwankwaso won in 38 of the 44 local government areas in Kano with a total of 997,279 votes.
Political observers have argued that politicians and their hirelings continue to unleash violence because they are rarely brought to justice, and the pattern has continued as no significant politically exposed person has been arrested recently and prosecuted.
However, all eyes will be on the political events and the legal fireworks as the Magistrate, Ibrahim Yola, had remanded Doguwa till 7th March for the hearing of his bail application.