The crisis bedeviling the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has been blamed on the party’s acting Chairman, Umar Damagum and its Governors’ Forum Chairman, Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed.
Damagum and Mohammed’s accuser is former Benue State Governor, Senator Gabriel Suswam.
Speaking yesterday on a national television, Suswam accused both of failing to provide leadership in matters involving the PDP.
The former governor declared that alleged failure of the PDP National Chairman and Mohammed to communicate to the Independent National Electoral Commission the status of Sam Anyanwu at a time was the genesis of the crisis concerning the controversy surrounding the party secretary issue.
“The person recognized by INEC is Anyanwu, when he left, the chairman should have informed INEC, but he didn’t do that. This is where I have indicted the chairman.
“The acting chairman has created confusion in the party, without that we won’t be where we are.
“Anyanwu tendered a letter of resignation. You can’t say you are on leave to go and contest. The chairman is complicit in this. They have ulterior motives. He was supposed to have been properly replaced.
“I put the blame squarely on Damagum and Bala Mohammed. If there was proper leadership, we won’t be where we are today. It is not about Wike. There was a lot of deceit. Damagum is a major culprit,” he said.
The former Benue Governor noted that if appointed, he would have done far better than the acting chairman, adding that it would be difficult to resuscitate the party with the current leadership.
“In Benue, there are factional PDP groups, these are fundamental issues that should be addressed. If the National Working Committee (NWC) had done the right thing from the outset, we wouldn’t be here today,” Suswam said.
