• Count me out of party’s internal crisis, says Atiku

The underground work to draft former Senate President, David Mark, into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairmanship race appears to be losing steam, party sources said yesterday.

There are ongoing  moves in the party, spearheaded by some of the state governors elected on the platform of PDP, to get rid of the  acting national chairman of the party, Ambassador Umar Damagum and replace him with a substantive chair.

Benue State born Mark, a retired brigadier general,  is one of the  people being tipped to occupy the office.

A former governor of Benue State,Gabriel Suswam and Engineer Conrad Utaan   have both also indicated interest in the position.

Utaan insists that  “there is no other solution to the lingering crisis  in the PDP than  resolving  the issue of  chairmanship, and there is no other way of resolving the issue aside  returning the position to the North-Central where it belongs rightfully, on moral and legal grounds.” 

Utaan also hails from Benue.

Mark’s supporters are promoting   him as a consensus candidate who can be relied upon by all the factions in the party to salvage the fortunes of the former ruling party.

They cite his state/geo political zone which is  the  same as that of  the former Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, whose truncated tenure is due to lapse in December 2025.

Ayu threw in the towel in the heat of the controversy that trailed the party’s loss of the 2023 presidential election.

A former National Security Adviser, some retired generals and former top government functionaries are said to be driving the Mark chairmanship agenda.

However, party sources told The Nation in Abuja that the campaign is not receiving the kind of positive response his promoters were expecting from party members. Some even go as far as saying the scheme has failed.

Party sources said the former Senate President himself is not particularly enthusiastic about the project for some personal reasons, including his age – leading to fears it may eventually be jettisoned.

He is currently 76 years old.

A source said the demands of the office include extensive travelling within the country and wondered how much of that could be done by Mark at his present age.

It was also gathered that the ongoing  litigation over the party leadership does not look encouraging to Mark.

The source also wondered how much  work  Mark could do to put the  party in order by  December 2025.

Damagum’s position as acting national chairman is currently protected by the October 11,2024 order of the Federal High Court, Abuja, restraining the national executive committee (NEC) and board of trustees (BoT) of the PDP  from removing him.

Justice  Peter Lifu also  ordered that aside Damagum, no other person must be recognised as the PDP acting national chair until the party’s convention scheduled for December 2025.

Lifu held that party members are bound by Articles 42, 47 and 67 of PDP’s constitution which stipulates that national officers of the party can only be elected during the party’s national convention.

 The suit marked FHC/ABJ/ CS/579/2024 was filed by Umar Maina, Yobe state PDP chair.

 Another Federal High Court sitting in Zamfara State last week declined to stop the party from postponing a meeting of the NEC.

 There were speculations that the purported meeting  was to remove Damagum .

 The Nation gathered that despite claims by the Chairman of the PDP National Reconciliation Committee, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, that the party is now one and there are more factions, entrenched groups remain antagonistic of each other.

 On one side are former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his supporters and on the other are those of Damagum and Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike.

 The Atiku group, backed by some of the governors, is  insistent on Damagum’s ouster largely because of the danger they perceive he constitutes to Atiku’s presidential bid in 2027.

 President of PDP Frontliners, Engineer Abdulraheem Ilyasu Garba,said while the major stakeholders in the party may have made a ‘tactical withdrawal’ in their battle for the control of the party for now, there is still a great deal of work to be done to resolve the differences among members ahead of the 2027 elections.

He said  PDP stakeholders acknowledge that with or without a replacement for Damagum, some measure of ferment is inevitable because the political processes of interest articulation in a party like the PDP cannot be the same  as obtains in  some other political parties.

 While shying away from direct comments about Wike and Atiku, he acknowledged that it is normal for highly  influential stakeholders like the duo to have loyalists who sometimes do proxy battles that they are not sent to do.

He believes that Damagum’s position  is safe for now as only a collective decision of various stakeholders can remove him.

He said:“Damagum is not going anywhere for now; his presence along with members of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Board of Trustees, National Working Committee (NWC), PDP National Assembly Caucus and the Forum of Former PDP Governors at last Tuesday’s meeting at Bauchi State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja says something.

 “Only his personal decision in response to likely proposals by PDP governors can get Damagum to leave and revert to his position as Deputy National Chairman  (North) but that has not happened yet so, he can only be dislodged that way by a collective decision that includes his input.

 “Besides, the November 16, 2024 Ondo Governorship election is keeping everyone focused and the October 11 judgment of Justice Peter Odo Lifu at the Federal High Court in Abuja declared that Ambassador Umar Damagum remains the PDP’s acting National Chairman until a collective decision can be taken at the national convention scheduled for late 2015.”

‘Count me out of PDP crisis’ – Atiku

Speaking on the PDP crisis yesterday,Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communication, Mr. Phrank Shuaibu, said the former vice president has no hand in the matter.

 He said any suggestion that Atiku is sponsoring people to foment trouble in the party is bizarre.

“Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar believes in due process and he has been focused on how to build the PDP into a more formidable party and he completely has no hand in any crisis that would rather draw the party backwards,” Shuaibu said.

“It is extremely farfetched and unfair to insinuate that Atiku has any involvement with any individual or group’s plans to brief lawyers and go to court towards vacating Justice Peter Lifu’s judgement.”

 Atiku and Wike are locked in a running spat sparked by Atiku’s presidential bid in  2023.

 Atiku’s ally,Iyorchia Ayu had failed to quit as PDP National Chairman after Atiku’s emergency as the party’s presidential candidate.

 Wike had kicked that it was against the constitution of the PDP for the chairman and the presidential flag bearer to come from the same part of the country.

 Only last weekend Wike called Atiku a serial loser who has been repeatedly rejected by Nigerian voters.

 He told the PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 election to pack his things and go home.

 Atike dismissed Wike’s comment as  baseless rants and said “ It is clear that Mr. Wike is more concerned with self-interest than addressing the real challenges faced by the nation.”

[TheNation]