My deputy plotted to remove me from office — Kano gov

Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has made his most direct allegations yet against his former deputy, Aminu Abdussalam, claiming that the resignation which ended their political partnership was linked to a deliberate plot to remove him from office.

Speaking at Government House in Kano while receiving a group of praise singers, Yusuf said the events surrounding Abdussalam’s exit pointed to a calculated attempt to force him out and install the former deputy as governor.

“Whatever pushed him to act in that manner was an effort to depose me and occupy the seat,” Yusuf said. “But God did not permit it.”

The governor also revealed that he had never personally seen or received the resignation letter attributed to Abdussalam, raising fresh questions about how the exit was formally processed.

“Today, the deputy governor who was elected alongside us is no longer part of this government. No one wronged him. In fact, I have not even come across his resignation letter, so why should I be concerned about it?” he said.

Abdussalam, popularly known as Gwarzo, resigned earlier this year amid mounting pressure from the Kano State House of Assembly, where impeachment proceedings against him had already been set in motion. His resignation abruptly halted the process, but the political fallout has continued to reverberate.

In remarks that hinted at deeper internal tensions, Yusuf also questioned whether unmet political ambitions within the Kwankwasiyya Movement may have driven his former deputy’s actions.

“The deputy governor who left in hopes of getting that ticket — what was his offence? Why wasn’t he given the chance? Isn’t that unfair to him?” the governor asked.

Abdussalam has not publicly responded to the allegations. His silence leaves unanswered what many observers now view as a high-stakes power struggle that came closer to reshaping Kano’s political landscape than previously acknowledged.