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Presidency summons Ribadu, Madaki, others

By John Ogiji (Minna) and Emmanuel Ande (Yola)
03 February 2015   |   2:24 pm
• May substitute Adamawa guber candidate  • Aliyu denies having sympathy for Buhari  IN a fresh move to restructure and strengthen the Adamawa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the tense 2015 elections, the Presidency on Monday summoned the party’s governorship candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, state chairman, Joel Madaki, Boni Haruna…

Nuhu-Ribadu2

• May substitute Adamawa guber candidate 

• Aliyu denies having sympathy for Buhari 

IN a fresh move to restructure and strengthen the Adamawa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the tense 2015 elections, the Presidency on Monday summoned the party’s governorship candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, state chairman, Joel Madaki, Boni Haruna and Zainab Maina (both ministers), alongside other stakeholders.

   The Guardian learnt from a top PDP chieftain that the crisis rocking the state chapter over imposition of Ribadu and other candidates prompted the summons. 

   The source noted that President Goodluck Jonathan was not happy when he visited the state, where he was pelted with stones and the crowd aggressive in their responses that they cannot vote PDP if Ribadu remained their candidate.

   Meanwhile, Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, has debunked insinuations that he is secretly working for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Maj.-Gen. Muhammudu Buhari (rtd), stating that he is not sympathetic to him.

   Stating that he has forgiven Buhari for truncating his political ambition in 1983 when he overthrew a democratically elected government, he said he believes in loyalty and would not abandon his party to support the opposition.

   According to him, though the APC candidate may have undisputable qualities and may be honest, those qualities do not translate into public policies. He said: “Buhari may be honest as an individual, we may admire him for his personal qualities but believe me, those qualities do not translate into public policies.

   “It does not translate in the way the society is contained, PDP members must have confidence and not be intimidated by any person, by noise, ethnic or religious sentiment.”

   Aliyu challenged those who defected from the PDP to return all they got from the party, including the positions they were elected into.

   The Monday night meeting, it was learnt, could not agree on any final decision, though one of the suggestions was to replace Ribadu with the Speaker, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the chieftain disclosed.

   “We are hoping that the meeting will come out with a solution that can rescue Adamawa PDP. The way things are, our party cannot win not just the governorship election but also many others, including the Senate,” the source said.

   “If Fintiri is the good answer, we will all adopt him and Ribadu will be given another position. The interest of the party is above individual interest.”

   Investigations further revealed that the President was informed during his visit to Yola that his chances of winning the state with the imposition of Ribadu was not only zero but that PDP would not be grounded at the poll. 

   Equally pointed out was the court case filed against the party by some contestants over Ribadu’s emergence in an Abuja primaries, with the fear that should the court rule in favour of the plaintiffs, Adamawa PDP would go to the poll without a governorship candidate.

 “The only way out for our party in Adamawa is to replace Ribadu with Fintiri; anything short of this cannot produce the result we are looking for,” the chieftain noted. “We all made costly mistake by imposing Ribadu on our people, but it is not too late for us to retrace our steps and correct the mistake.”

   The President was further informed that the fact that “Ribadu’s younger brother, Jafaru Ribadu, is contesting the House of Assembly election on the platform of Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) is evidence that our governorship candidate has acceptability crisis even in his house.”

   When contacted Tuesday, Madaki said he was in Abuja attending a meeting but did not disclose the purpose of the meeting.

 

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