Adamawa 2015: Is PDP a moving corpse? by Emmanuel Ande THE Adamawa State chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP, which is very popular in undemocratic activities, has again returned to the well-known game of conducting itself and executing political projects that many believe are not only unlawful, but also abuse of the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In 2007, PDP awarded the Adamawa governorship ticket to ousted Governor Murtala Nyako, who was a member of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and was not among the nine governorship aspirants that the PDP screened for the primaries. In 2011, the PDP organised kangaroo governorship primaries at the Lamido Cinema Hall located on Galadima Aminu Way and excluded Dr. Umar Ardo, who was screened, from participating in the race. Few months after, the Appeal Court sitting in Yola described the PDP primaries that produced Nyako as a sham and a lawless exercise that had no legal taste. The PDP, under the leadership of Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, the former governor of Bauchi, who led the party in 2007 to a shameful defeat, has again returned to its game. Last week, the national leadership of the party conducted a peaceful House of Assembly primary election and the committee that came from Abuja announced the result. But 24 hours to the conduct of the House of Representatives and Senate primaries, it was announced on the electronic media that the primaries had been shifted to Abuja. The reason advanced by the national leadership of the PDP was that there is insecurity in Adamawa State. The questions that the Muazu-led PDP is still not answering are: How many people died during the conduct of the Assembly primaries? Will the general elections that have more tension also be conducted in Abuja since none can predict when the alleged insecurity will be over? Does insecurity occur only during PDP primaries? What happened during the APC primaries in Adamawa, the same state that the Muazu group claimed there was insecurity? If the alleged doctored delegates’ list that was brought from Abuja by the committee to conduct the primaries was accepted by the state leadership of the PDP led by Chief Joel Madaki, will there still be insecurity in the state? There was a court injunction that restricted the PDP from using the doctored delegates’ list in conducting the primaries. The Guardian investigation reveals that the result of the Assembly primaries was responsible for the shifting of the other primaries to Abuja, since previous one did not favour Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, reported anointed candidate of Mu’azu. Ribadu, in a dramatic twist, joined the PDP a week to the primaries of the aborted governorship by-election, which former Acting Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri won. The delegates’ election was conducted when Ribadu was a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC); so, he didn’t have his supporters among the original delegates who were to vote to pick the candidate for the PDP ticket. “To prove how desperate the Muazu-led PDP is operating to impose Ribadu on the people of the state, Fintiri was illegally disqualified during the 2014 October governorship by-election by the controversial Senator Ibrahim Mantu committee, to pave way for Ribadu,” a respondent said. “But Fintiri, a man that has not lost any political battle, recovered his ticket from the Mantu committee.” It was learnt that the removal of Fintiri by a controversial court ruling was to bring back Governor James Bala Ngillari, “who the Mu’azu group were mistaken for a man that can be remote-controlled in the interest of Ribadu.” A Senate ticket was reportedly bought by the group and given to the governor (Ngillari) not to contest the governorship poll, “to enable Ribadu to have a smooth ride to government House, Yola.” The source said that the attempt by the Abuja group to block Ngillari from contesting was to ensure that government structures were used for Ribadu “since he lacks political structures in the state.” When “the unholy political accord” was broken, the Adamawa people, who saw in Ngillari a leader that could rescue the state from the claws of the Abuja clique and take the people to the Promise Land, decided to buy a nomination form for the governor. It was from here that the new political marriage between Ngillari and Mu’azu went sour. The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP, after a meeting in Abuja, issued a statement, via Olisa Metuh, that the governorship position of the party in Adamawa had been zoned to Adamawa Central, to pave way for Ribadu. It was gathered that after the PDP stakeholders and aspirants rejected the purported zoning, the party moved to plan B, to ensure that Ngillari was blocked from contesting. The result of the Adamawa PDP primaries held in Abuja proved that the alleged zoning theory was only designed by the Abuja group to stop the governor. The result stated that Dr. Alyiu Idi Hong won the Senate ticket for the Central zone, while Mr. James Barka, won the House of Representatives ticket. The question now is: If there is zoning in the PDP, as preached by the Muazu leadership, how come Dr. Idi and Barka from Hong local government got the two tickets? The Abuja primaries have ignited fire in the Adamawa State chapter of the party, as stakeholders and aspirants are beating political war drum over what they described as a sham and nullity. Last Saturday, after a meeting in Yola, the Adamawa governorship aspirants and the stakeholders on the PDP platform rejected the purported shifting of the state primaries to Abuja without any tangible reason to back the decision of the NWC, as announced in Abuja on Friday. At the meeting chaired by the state chairman of the PDP, Chief Joel Madaki, the governorship aspirants and stakeholders insisted that the Adamawa delegates would not participate in any illegal primaries outside the constitutionally approved venues, as stated in the electoral guidelines. Part of the meeting statement reads: “In accordance with pages 6, 7 and 8 of the PDP electoral guidelines for primary election 2014 approved by NEC, all primary elections shall be held in their respective constituencies. “The Adamawa State PDP stakeholders hereby resolve not to allow our delegates to participate in any illegal primary election outside the approved constituencies, as planned by the renegade PDP members and their cohorts in Abuja. “We have discovered that there are renegade members of PDP in Adamawa State who are masterminding and bent on sabotaging the electoral fortunes of the party. “The PDP state-working committee of Adamawa State is hereby called upon to initiate appropriate disciplinary action against them.” On the purported insecurity the PDP claimed was the reason for shifting of the primaries, the stakeholders said: “As regards insecurity and issues of insurgency in Adamawa State, the recent primary election for House of Assembly held on December 1st 2014 by PDP went on throughout the state successfully. “Similarly, the opposition party, APC, held its primary election for governorship on Thursday without any incidence. So, when did NWC discover that Adamawa is no longer safe for primaries?” THE stakeholders accused President Goodluck Jonathan’s Principal Secretary, Alhaji Hassan Tukur, of sponsoring the crisis in Adamawa PDP, “to protect his selfish interest at the detriment of the party victory at the general elections.” The aspirants also described the purported suspension of PDP former national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, without giving him fair hearing, as null, void and of no effect. Alhaji Abubakar Jida Adamu, a chieftain of the PDP from Ribadu, the village of Nuhu Ribadu, told The Guardian that the PDP in Adamawa is not only heading to the graveyard, but that the Mu’azu-led leadership would also sink the party before the general elections. “If Mu’azu can think fast without sentiment, he should remember that it was due to his imposition of a candidate that PDP lost Bauchi State when he was the governor and he lost his Senate election,” he said. “This should be a good reminder to those following Mu’azu; they should know that getting party ticket is no longer a guarantee that you win election. “Ribadu’s Abuja ticket will end in Abuja unless the general election is also conducted in Abuja.” Alhaji Adamu predicted that if President Jonathan did not act fast, the PDP days were numbered in Adamawa, stressing that the people of the state would use their votes to revolt against any imposition in the state. Senator Grace Bent said that, “if the Abuja kangaroo primaries conducted against the provisions of the law are not reversed, the party will not participate in the next year’s polls in the state.” “We are not against anyone, but the issue is everyone should be allowed to participate in the election as stipulated by the law.” She reminded the party leadership to have a flashback when Governor Mbadinuju of Anambra State was denied the PDP return ticket and the party lost the state up till today. The concern of many PDP members in the state over the Ribadu case is the purported popularity of the candidature of the former EFCC boss to win election in the state, considering the APC candidate, Senator Jibrilla Bindow. The 2011 presidential results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the various polling units had put the presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, a distance ahead of President Jonathan of the PDP and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of the dead Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). At Ajiya ward located in Jimeta, the state capital, where former Vice President Atiku Abubakar voted, Buhari polled 306 votes, while Jonathan got 81 votes and Ribadu scored only nine votes. Buhari shocked Ribadu at Bako ward polling unit 008 where he (Ribadu) voted. Here, Buhari scored 260 votes, Jonathan 64 and Ribadu polled 85. While answering questions from journalists, Ribadu, after voting, said that he would accept defeat if the election was free and fair. He blamed the low turnout of voters on the National Assembly election results, which, he alleged, did not reflect the votes cast by the electorate. Ribadu, who expressed confidence of winning the poll, pointed out that only a new leadership could restore the lost glory of the country, noting that the PDP government had no focus or any mission to serve the people of Nigeria. The former EFCC boss, who lamented the alleged rot and corruption in the present government in Nigeria, maintained that the only way to save the country from total collapse was to take over the mantle of leadership from the PDP government. The Adamawa PDP crisis, which is already threatening the existence of the party in the state, has two consequences that may affect the party in the general elections. First, the PDP may not have a candidate to present at the governorship poll, considering the legal implications of the Abuja primaries and the rule of law. The Abuja primaries were conducted with delegates’ list that a court of law has placed a legal embargo on. Both the aspirants and the party executives were not communicated over change of venue by the party national leadership, as stipulated by the Electoral Act; thus confirming that they were excluded from the exercise. The Adamawa party executive members were not present at the Abuja primaries, which is against the provisions of the Electoral Act and the primaries can be nullified based on the absence of the party chiefs who are the custodians of the state chapter’s delegates. The Appeal court sitting in Yola, in 2012 described Nyako’s PDP primaries as a sham, nullity, null and void on the ground that other aspirants were excluded from the exercise. The PDP aspirants in Adamawa last week were not communicated over change of venue of the primaries. The NWC of the party ended a meeting last Thursday night and announced the change of venue on the electronic media 24 hours to the primaries of the National Assembly members. The Electoral Act stipulates that a one-week notification note must be given to all aspirants participating in the primaries and the state party executives, before the primaries can take place at a new venue. With this legal crisis facing the Abuja PDP primaries, it is clear that if any of the aspirants approached a court of law, the primaries would be overturned and the ruling may come when submission of candidates’ names is closed by the INEC. The question waiting for Mu’azu’s answer over the Adamawa PDP crisis is: Is Ribadu’s political value more than the PDP’s, as a party? “Or is it another political coup to award the state to the APC presidential candidate at the detriment of President Jonathan?
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 05:40:02 +0000
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