Few months after the last general elections, Gombe State chapters of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) have drawn a battle line accusing each other of ineptitude.
While the PDP berated the APC led government in the state for denying its members a venue to hold an organised end of the year dinner and stakeholders meeting, the APC described the PDP as an inconsequential party that has lost steam and dead in the state.
In a press statement issued by one of party’s stalwarts in the state who was Director General, Media and Publicity of the defeated gubernatorial campaign organization in the state, Dahiru Hassan Kera, PDP stated it was an act of cowardice and barefaced indication of jittery for the APC led government in state to deny PDP the proposed venue for its party’s meeting and dinner held on Monday, 30, 2019 just as the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the Governor, Ismaila Uba Misilli in a reaction said that the PDP was only looking for cheap public sympathy to cover up its shame of last defeat.
Hassan Kera further stated that ‘’We organised an end of the year dinner for our party members in the state and Gombe International Hotel was booked three weeks ago for the event only for us to be called and informed that the management has banned all political gathering in the hotel. It’s obvious that the management is acting a script of the government and this is nothing than an act of cowardice by the APC led government in the state and whether they like it or not, they must prepare for a vibrant opposition and they should get ready to hand over power to PDP in 2023, denying us venue at this earliest stage is a premature sign of psychological defeat.’’
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To the above, Ismaila Uba Misilli said that it was not true that the PDP was denied use of the hotel saying that, the government is not running the hotel as it has its own management independent of government control, “if the PDP has an issue with any organisation in the state, they should go and sort it out without dragging us into it,” said.
Hassan Kera added that “the APC must know that opposition is an integral part of our democracy and they should remember that they were allowed to use the same venue for their congresses under the PDP control government and even yesterday some of their Commissioners had a dinner in the same venue we’ve booked and why the sudden embargo now?’’
In his reaction to that, the Governor’s spokesman said that “PDP is as good as dead and buried in Gombe state, therefore, it cannot be an opposition to the APC which is in firm control of the state affairs.”
The PDP chieftain concluded that the vendetta and ineptitude demonstrated by the APC in the state within barely six months of their stewardship has shown that they don’t have anything meaningful to offer to the people of the state and it’s imminent that they’ll be sent packing by 2023.
Uba Misilli while concluding said that the APC has been able to within a short period of time changed the story of Gombe State positively saying that things have been turned around for good in the advising the PDP to forget about ever ruling Gombe State again.
and then