A fresh political standoff is unfolding within the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kano State, as the party’s chairman, Usaini Isa Mai Riga, has declared that the party structure will not be handed over to former governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

In an exclusive interview with The Eastern Updates on Monday, Mai Riga disclosed that efforts to reach a common ground with Kwankwaso ahead of his entry into the party had broken down, despite holding two separate meetings to discuss leadership arrangements.

Read Also: 2027: Peter Obi, Kwankwaso Ditch ADC, Officially Join NDC

“He wants us to hand over the entire party to him, despite the sacrifices and time we invested in nurturing it when it had little or no attention,” Mai Riga said.

He maintained that such a demand was unacceptable, stressing that the current leadership would resist any attempt to take control of the party.

“This will not happen. We will pursue all legitimate avenues to ensure that Kwankwaso does not take over the party structure from us,” he added.

Mai Riga also revealed that he received instructions from the party’s national leadership to suspend the planned state congress, citing the timing of Kwankwaso’s entry, despite similar congresses proceeding in other states.

“We were asked not to hold our congress because there are plans to hand over the party to Kwankwaso, that is why you see me here instead of at the congress venue. We will not allow the rights of party members to be undermined. We will do everything possible because we do not support injustice,” he said.

The statement marks Mai Riga’s first public reaction following the entry of Kwankwaso, leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement, into the NDC, just 24 hours after receiving his membership card.

Earlier on Monday, Kwankwaso arrived in Kano and is expected to meet with close political associates to deliberate on leadership structure and candidate positioning across different levels.

However, Mai Riga noted that the former governor has yet to formally engage with the state party leadership.

Efforts by The Eastern Updates to reach Kwankwaso or his aides for comment were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.

Peter Obi has changed parties again, and this time he brought Rabiu Kwankwaso with him. The two opposition heavyweights formally joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress on Sunday in Abuja, collecting membership cards amid supporter chants and the kind of choreographed optimism that has accompanied each of Obi’s previous political relocations — from APGA to PDP to Labour to ADC, and now to a party most Nigerians were not closely watching until Sunday afternoon changed that.

Obi’s explanation was consistent with what he has said at each previous departure: the crisis follows him rather than originates with him. He accused the federal government of deliberately seeding instability inside opposition platforms, engineering litigation and internal conflict to keep credible challengers perpetually distracted. “The government of today has ensured that they put up crisis upon crisis, which led to several lawsuits in our party that made us abandon those parties,” he told those gathered at Sunday’s reception. He described the ADC, which he had joined only last December, as a repeat of the Labour Party experience — same dysfunction, different letterhead.

Read also: Peter Obi, Kwankwaso Defection Still Under Probability – NDC

What drew him to the NDC, he said, was a simple promise: no court cases. National leader and former Bayelsa governor Seriake Dickson had apparently guaranteed as much. Obi treated that guarantee as the primary selling point, pleading openly with members not to litigate internal disputes. “We want to build a party. Please don’t come here with cases. Let there be peace,” he urged. The appeal was equal parts political manifesto and desperate prayer.

Kwankwaso brought ideological alignment and organizational muscle. He said he and Obi had met Dickson and found shared positions on education, youth empowerment and security. He also noted that the NDC’s membership registration closes May 6, and used the occasion to rally his Kwankwasiyya movement and former NNPP members to register immediately. The political infrastructure Kwankwaso commands in the Northwest gives the new arrangement something Obi’s previous platforms often lacked — a northern anchor with demonstrable grassroots depth.

Dickson received them with the enthusiasm of a party leader who understands exactly what two nationally recognized names do for an organization’s visibility. “Both of you are personifications of the crowd,” he said, gesturing at the supporters who had shown up despite the visit being unannounced publicly. He described Obi and Kwankwaso as “part of the biggest brands in our political history” and promised the party would provide the stable platform they had been denied elsewhere.

The Eastern Updates