February poll: Crisis rocks Borno PDP over substitution of guber candidate

There are strong indications that the crisis over the sudden sub­stitution of the Peoples Demo­cratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Alhaji Gambo Lawan, in Borno State, is far from over.

This indication emerged last Monday, when Lawan, whom Daily Sun gathered had concluded plans to challenge his substitution in court, was sighted at one of the courts in Abuja. But the strike embarked upon by Judi­ciary workers nationwide, made it difficult to establish whether or not he had filed an action in court.
Lawan, who was at the party’s mini-prima­ry election conducted on December 15, 2014, in Abuja, was elected as the party’s governor­ship candidate. He had before his emergence, been adopted as the party’s consensus candidate at a meeting attended by President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on December 11, 2014.
It was the former minister of Works, Sena­tor Sanusi Daggash, that announced the party’s decision after the said meeting.
Daggash, had while addressing Villa Cor­respondents after the meeting said he led the party’s leaders from the state to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa to “rub minds with Jonathan on how to arrive at a consensus on whom to adopt as the candidate in the state.”
He further explained that the decision to re­sort to a consensus arrangement was due to the security situation in the state, coupled with the short time with which to organise a primary contest, expressing confidence that the PDP would sack the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government in the state.
On his part, Lawan, had after the December 15 primary election revealed to Journalists that “I believe in the true principles of democracy. I believe in ensuring that party members do have the opportunity to contest for any position within the party and achieve it without having to be imposed or anointed by anybody other than the process that has been laid down.”
But by the tail end of last year, confusion set in, following the sudden replacement of Lawan, with Mohammed Imam. Imam, not Kashim Imam, is the former chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in Borno State. And he had also served as commissioner in different ministries in Borno State, during the administration of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff in the State.
Daily Sun however gathered that the sub­stitution is already generating tension within the fold of the party, with a group, known as ‘Concerned PDP Stakeholders’ in Borno State, warning that unless Lawan was allowed to remain PDP flag bearer, the party would again lose the state to the APC.
In a petition signed by Ibrahim Yakudima and Ibrahim Abatcha, which was addressed to the PDP National chairman, Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu and copied the President, the group alleged that Lawan “was unjustifiably substi­tuted by Imam.”
The group argued that Lawan got the party’s ticket after polling 185 votes during the party’s primary poll, which held in Abuja on Decem­ber 15 and wondered why he was “replaced without any cogent reason.”
But there are also fears in some quarters that the petition may after all not receive any attention, since Imam is Sheriff’s godson, a thing that may force Lawan to opt for the legal option.
In a related development, another group of Borno Indigenes, resident in the South-West, has also kicked against the choice of Imam.
Addressing a press conference in Lagos recently, leaders of the group, Alhaji Kachalla G. Bulama and Haruna Wamdio, as chairman and Secretary, respectively, alongside other members of the group said “by way of a short introduction, our union is the coming together of some indigenes of Borno State operating in different states within the South-West, Nigeria, for the sole aim of helping ourselves and being our brothers’ keepers through economic support for one another in the form of having cooperative ‘adashi’ which we give as loan to anyone of us in need to pay back without interest.
“We also help each other to start businesses, help each other with links to customers and other business contacts and we are always there for each other to offer moral support at the time of need and at happy social events. We have members who go to Dubai, China, Malaysia and many European countries to do businesses. We are not a poor organization even though many of our members are not really educated. As a policy, all our members have something doing. We have our rules and we have been a silent union that is open only to our members. This is the first time we are doing a press briefing.
“Our new worry is the future of our state. We know the developments going on in Borno and we are all full of hope that the problems will one day end if our leaders in the state remain committed as they are now.
“However, a recent political development has made us to become seriously afraid for the future of Borno State. We are not card carrying members of any party but we want the best candidates from the major political parties in Borno that is the APC which is in Government and the PDP which is the main opposition in Borno, to emerge.
“In politics, anything can happen no matter what expectations people have for a particular person. This is why we prefer both APC and PDP to have credible candidates for the gov­ernorship so that in the event anyone of them wins, Borno State will have a good future.
“However, as we speak today, the former Governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff (SAS) has imposed on the PDP a per­son that is not fit in any way to be a Governor of Borno even in normal times not to talk of the critical time that Borno has found itself. Alhaji Mohammed Imam was on Wednesday, 24th of December, 2014 dubiously imposed as the new candidate of the PDP.
“His name was smuggled in to replace the validly elected governorship candidate in the person of Alhaji Gambo Lawan that was elected by delegates and given certificate of re­turn by the INEC. We are not really concerned with the political intricacies in PDP but we are concerned with the person of Alhaji Moham­med Imam in the event that kind of man is to become the Governor of Borno State with all our challenges.