PDP crisis: Bauchi gov makes U-turn, accepts Damagum’s leadership

Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, on Tuesday night, bowed to pressure and openly recognised the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum.

Earlier, a faction of the Party loyal to Mohammed had sought a court order to stop the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission from annulling Thursday’s planned National Executive Council meeting.

The lawsuit, filed by a certain Imam Auwal at a Zamfara High Court in Gusau Judicial Division, also sought to vacate an earlier injunction from an Abuja Federal High Court Abuja barring the PDP from removing Damagum from office.

But on Tuesday, the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum welcomed Damagum’s leadership at a stakeholders meeting convened to ease tensions among warring party leaders in the National Working Committee.

Only five of the 13 governors were in attendance as of the time of filing this report.

They include Governors Bala Mohammed; Ademola Adeleke of Osun, Dauda Lawal (Zamfara), Siminalaye Fubara (Rivers) and Caleb Muftwan (Plateau).

The development comes a few hours after the Olagunsoye Oyinlola-led Reconciliation Committee set up to resolve the factionalisation of the NWC announced that it has successfully resolved their differences for the party to forge ahead in its task of nation-building.

In his opening remarks at the expanded meeting of the PDP Governors’ Forum with the Board of Trustees and former governors late on Tuesday, Mohammed said they had only one agenda, which is to reconcile all differences.

He said, “This is a PDP meeting, not governors meeting. It is not a caucus meeting but a meeting of PDP stakeholders. It is a one-item agenda meeting. As you can see, we are all united today under the leadership of Umar Damagum, we are here to discuss germane issues.

“We will resist any attempt to make Nigeria a one-party state. We will use our experiences since 1999 to provide Nigerians with an alternative platform. “