Leadership Crisis: Removal Of Damagum Not Unanimous Decision Of PDP Govs – Group

A coalition of advocacy groups in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has disagreed with the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed on the leadership change in the party.

The coalition at a joint press conference in Abuja on Friday, said the replacement of the Acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum with a candidate from North Central, was not the unanimous decision of PDP governors.

Leaders of the coalition, Justina J. Deshi (Concerned PDP League), Khadijat Tajudeen (PDP Survival Movement), and Muhammed Ahmed (PDP) Ambassadors of Patriotic Minds), also said there was no time PDP governors agreed that the structure of PDP in Rivers State should be given to the state governor Sim Fubara.

The coalition wondered where Governor Mohammed was when Senator Buruji Kashamu of blessed memory in 2010, took the Ogun State PDP structure from Otunba Gbenga Daniel, who was governor of the state at that time.

It also recalled that the party’s structure in Cross River State was taken away from the then-sitting governor Senator Ben Ayade in 2020/21, and handed over to former governors Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke.

The coalition accused Governor Mohammed and the Director General of PDP Governors’ Forum Dr Emmanuel Agbo, of laying the foundation of the present PDP problem, noting that as Chairman and Secretary of PDP post-2019 General Elections Review Panel, they claimed that South East and North East were not fairly treated.

“He claimed in his report that the North East and South East have not been fairly treated which is a big lie to a large extent because, the first and only Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Belewa of blessed memory, was from Bauchi State, and served from 1957 to 1966 (9 years).

“This is how Gov. Bala Muhammed and Emmanuel Agbo laid the foundation for the major issue bedevilling the party today,” it stated.

It called on Governor Mohammed to resign as Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum because the last occupant of the office was from the North.

The coalition alleged that Governor Mohammed’s presidential ambition was distracting him as the PDP Governors’ Forum.