By M.Peter- Jos.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Plateau state, Barrister Caleb Mutfwang has cautioned those giving the impression of crisis in the party in the state to desist as the party is staying focused ahead of the 2023 elections.
Mutfwang, a former Chairman of Mangu local government area of the State spoke on the heels of the recent issues which resulted to two people claiming the Chairmanship seat of the Party in the State.
It would be recalled that when the former Chairman, Hon. Damishi Sango resigned as the State Party Chairman over two weeks ago, his Deputy, Amos Gombi assumed the position of Acting Chairman but the Northern zone of the
Party where Sango hails from on Monday at a meeting endorsed Chris Hassan from the zone to serve out Sango’s tenure.
But the Gombi faction, mainly from his Central zone has kicked against Hassan’s endorsement saying such is done in bad faith. The faction led by former Speaker of the State Assembly, Emmanuel Go’ar had addressed the press saying the purported ousting of Gombi was a “coup”, an exercise in futility which stands “null and void.”
Go’ar added, “I want to advice them to follow the rule of law; they used the same law to remove Dr. Haruna Dabin but now the law is not in their favour, they want to bend it. We in the Central zone, we are calling on the lawmakers to follow the position of law, they should follow the right channel and express their grievances rather than having a kangaroo meeting in the State to cause disaffection.”
But Mutfwang, also from the Central zone faulted the group’s position as he maintains they want to hijack the Party for their selfish aim.
According to him, “The problem of PDP is that some people want to hijack the party for their selfish aim, I don’t want to name names but some of those people crystallize around the former chairman, Hon. D. T. Sango. I know that a constitutional meeting of the State Executive Council, SEC which is the highest decision making body of the Party was requisitioned by 2/3 of the members of that council and it was convened.
“The Acting Chairman from the information available to us was privy to the meeting but he wanted to sabotage it; the constitution of the party is very clear and unambiguous. In the event that the Chairman of the Party should resign, section 47 (6) of the Party constitution amended in 2017 it reads that when a vacancy occurs in any of the offices of the Party, the Executive Committee of the appropriate level shall appoint another person from the area or zone where the officer originated from to serve out the tenure of the officer.
“When Dr. Haruna Dabin from the Central zone vacated his seat, Raymond Dabo, his then Deputy from the Southern zone served out his tenure. This case is different because the central zone where Dr. Dabin comes from did not request for a replacement. This provision of the constitution is not automatically done but has to be activated by the people concerned.
“In this case, the Northern zone where Hon. Sango comes from officially convened a constitutionally recognized meeting of the zone and requested that section 47(6) of the constitution be complied with. So the State Executive Committee of the Party has no option than to accede to the request of the zone affected.”
He reminded those aggrieved that “PDP is a Party of the people, it is not a one man Party and nobody can hold PDP to ransom so two third of the members (SEC in Plateau is made up of 86 members) not less than 62 people signed the requisition for the meeting. If the meeting holds, the constitution also provides that 1/3 is the quorum and there were not less than 40 members of SEC in that meeting.
“I know as a fact that all those who have sympathy for Sango also have sympathy for Gombi and they have made up their minds not to attend the meeting. I am from Central zone and I would not support any unconstitutional act by my zone. There is no camp of anybody, there is no faction in the party, the Party in Plateau State is not in crisis, some people want to create the impression that there is crisis but there is no crisis, let those saying there is crisis tell us their support base.”
