FORMER People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Senatorial aspirant in Niger State, Air Commodore Peter Gana, has announced his retirement from the party and partisan politics.
He said at a press conference in Abuja at the weekend that after due consultation with members of his family, it was agreed that it was time for him to leave partisan politics and play the role of a statesman henceforth.
The onetime managing director of defunct Nigeria Airways observed that with the challenges bedevilling the economy, it was time that all hands were put on deck to steer back the ship of state on the right course.
He praised the Niger State governor, Abubakar Bello, who he said was returning the state to the path of progress and prosperity.
The three time senatorial aspirant expressed regret over the way the PDP was hijacked by those he referred to as opportunists who he said turned it into the enemy of Nigerians.
He noted the ongoing probe of prominent members of the party by various security agencies into how they allegedly mismanaged the economic boom, commending the efforts being put into bringing sanity back into the polity.
He urged every indigene and resident of Niger State to cooperate with the present government to enable the governor to achieve his lofty objectives for the state.
He said: “Although I did not achieve my personal objective of occupying an elective office, I feel very satisfied.
“This is because my entry and sustained activities in partisan politics made a lot of Nigerlites and elsewhere aware that there are Nupe people in Kotagora Emirate.
“It also gave hope to the minority Nupes who had been marginalised and oppressed since history, the confidence and courage to now assert themselves politically and otherwise.”
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