Politics

Kebbi: Fresh crisis hits PDP as Turaki, Bamaiyi, others suspended

A fresh crisis has seemingly erupted in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as at least four of its leaders in Kebbi State have been slammed with suspension barely forty-eight hours before the supplementary election scheduled to take place there.

Those affected are former Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki; former Chief of Army Staff, General Ishaya Bamaiyi (retired); 2015 governorship candidate of the party, Gen Bello Sarki Yaki (retired) and former PDP National Treasurer, Buhari Bala.

While it was not clear when Bamaiyi was suspended, the other three were suspended on Wednesday night by their wards in Gwandu Emirate of the state.

The action has already unsettled the opposition party which is trailing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by about 45,000 votes following the conduct of the governorship election on March 18.

The crisis is now being blamed on the National Working Committee (NWC), which is alleged to have removed the party structure from legacy members in the state and handed it over to new joiners.

The PDP has already dispatched a delegation from the national secretariat to Kebbi to oversee its participation in the supplementary.

However, the Tribune Online learned that the delegation is facing an uphill task because of the divisions within the party which it fears may impact negatively its effort to make up for lost grounds in the poll.

PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdulahi, confirmed the suspensions to the Nigerian Tribune when contacted on Thursday, affirming that a number of issues have remained unresolved.

He said the margin of lead by the APC in the governorship election is big “essentially because PDP has divided itself seriously in the state as it has done at the national level.”

He added: “There are a number of issues that have not been addressed up until this minute that I am talking to you. Like we are waking up this morning to hear that the former minister of special duties who has kept this party together since 2012 before the likes of Adamu Aleiro who just joined the party less than five months ago before the likes of the governorship candidate, Aminu Mande, who joined the party in December of last year, has been suspended by his ward.

“You know, all these people are new entrants to the party. And when you don’t take the original promoters of the party into confidence, you don’t defer to them, you don’t involve them in things you do, then chances are that you will run into trouble.

“You have a former minister of foreign affairs who also ran for the governorship of the state, who was the national treasurer of this party. Today, they said he is suspended by his own ward.

“Turaki is also suspended by his own ward. All of these people are in Gwandu Emirate where the governorship candidate hails from.

“So, the party is not speaking in unison, and this is the situation, to be very candid, in Kebbi. We have not been able to unite this party. No thanks to the steps of the National Working Committee itself because there is no basis for you to stake the suffering of original members referred to as the Legacy PDP and then give to total strangers and ask them to lord it over those ones that have kept the party together.

“This Turaki that I’m talking about was the deputy director general of the presidential campaign in 2015 for Goodluck Jonathan. He was also the deputy director general in 2019 for the presidency of Atiku (Abubakar) and a former minister, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

“He has run for the governorship of Kebbi State five times himself. I mean, you believe that he cannot be deferred to by a retired general who just moved into the party? And it is not as of he is prepared logistically or with all the structure that you require in politics to win an election.

“These are some of the things these people don’t put together to be able to resolve on candidates.

“And when you now produce any Tom, Dick and Harry, the next thing, they will say, ‘rally round him and deliver him’.

“How do you go and sell him when there are seasoned politicians who have carved niches for themselves, who have laboured to keep the party together, who are known by locals and have appreciated and related well with the locales?”

The NWC member pointed out that it would be a hard sell for people to support those who have taken over the party having only recently joined from the APC whereas those who have been toiling for the party have been left in the cold.

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