The Peoples Democratic Party in Kano State has named Muhammad Sani Abacha, son of the late military ruler General Sani Abacha, as its candidate for the 2027 governorship race, following the sudden withdrawal of the party’s earlier flag bearer, Muhammad Bello Dalha.

The decision was taken on Wednesday at an expanded meeting of the party’s State Executive Committee in Kano, where officials organised what they described as an affirmation and replacement primary election to settle the matter after weeks of internal wrangling within the party.

Addressing party faithful and reporters after the exercise, the state PDP chairman, Dr Bello Gambo Bichi, explained that Dalha had actually won the party’s original primary but chose to step aside following what he called extensive consultations among stakeholders in both Kano and Abuja.

He said the party’s constitution required that a fresh contest be held once a candidate withdraws, and that was what informed Wednesday’s proceedings.

The replacement primary was supervised by an electoral panel led by Dr Abba Abdullahi, who formally announced Abacha as the winner and confirmed that he had satisfied every requirement needed to fly the party’s flag in the 2027 poll. Representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission reportedly monitored the process to ensure it complied with relevant guidelines.

Beyond the governorship slot, the party also used the occasion to resolve a long running rift between rival factions in the state. The deputy governorship ticket was handed to the faction loyal to Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, with the group settling on Alhaji Yusuf Ado Kibiya, a former factional chairman and onetime commissioner for Land and Agriculture, as Abacha’s running mate.

Chairman Bichi described the arrangement as proof that the party had put its internal disagreements behind it, noting that some candidates for National Assembly and State Assembly seats were also swapped as part of the broader reconciliation effort.

This is not Abacha’s first outing in Kano politics. He previously contested the state’s governorship election on the PDP platform in 2023, finishing in third place behind the eventual winner.

His emergence as the party’s flag bearer for 2027 is likely to draw fresh attention to the Abacha family name in Nigerian politics, more than two decades after General Abacha’s controversial rule and the scrutiny that followed over billions of dollars in assets traced to his family and associates.