Crisis Rocks Katsina PDP Over Suspension of Officials

Francis Sardauna writes that a raging storm may scupper the chances of the Peoples Democratic Party in Katsina State during the 2023 general election if the broken fences within the party are not mended before the poll.

Fresh crisis is brewing in the Katsina State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because the main opposition party which is fiercely battling to reclaim power from the All Progressives Congress (APC) party is now a house ripped apart by self ambition, confusion and in total disarray.

The squabbles rocking the PDP in the state seem to suggest that the fortune and the future of the opposition party in the state is under serious threat. Menacing activities had come ricocheting in droves to shatter the hitherto peace of the graveyard within the party.

For political observers, the water boiled over last week when some PDP officials believed to be loyalists of the party’s Governorship Candidate, Senator Yakubu Lado, removed the party’s chairman, Hon. Salisu Yusuf and the deputy chairman, Alhaji Salisu Lawal Uli, over alleged loss of confidence and trust in their leadership.

24 local government chairmen, 13 House of Representatives candidates and two senatorial candidates of the party who were said to have unanimously endorsed Majigiri and Uli’s removal at a recent meeting in Kano, elected the Daura zonal vice chairman of the party, Hon. Lawal Magaji as acting chairman.

In a letter signed by the State Secretary of the party, Hon. Sanusi Ali and addressed to the PDP National Working Committee (NWC), the plotters accused Majigiri and Uli of breaching section 58 subsection (i), (d), (f) and (h) of the party’s constitution as amended in 2017.

The letter read in part: “The Katsina State Executive Committee (SEC) of the PDP held a meeting on Sunday 30th of October, 2022 chaired by the state secretary of the party, 50 members out of the statutory 73.

“It was resolved, among other issues, that members of the party have lost confidence and trust in the leadership of Hon. Salisu Yusuf Majigiri as state chairman and Alhaji Salisu Lawal Uli as deputy chairman. The committee found the state chairman and his deputy in total breach of section 58 subsection (i), (d), (f) and (h) of the constitution as amended in 2017.

“In view of the seriousness of the offences which can have a significant negative effect on the campaign efforts both for the presidential down to the state Assembly, the committee resolved to sanction them and salvage the situation by removal from office as per section 59 (I) of the PDP constitution as amended in 2017.

“Furthermore, the committee deliberated on the vacancy created and resolved to appoint Hon. Lawal Magaji presently vice chairman of Daura zone as the acting chairman. The committee relied on section 47 (6) of the PDP constitution to appoint another person at the appropriate level from the area or zone where the officer originated from to serve out the tenure of the immediate former chairman.

“The attention of the National Working Committee (NWC) is hereby drawn to the resolutions of the 75% of the state executive committee on removal from office of Hon. Salisu Yusuf Majigiri as chairman and Alhaji Salisu Lawal Uli deputy chairman. The SEC resolved to appoint Hon. Lawal Magaji as acting chairman to serve out the rest of the tenure”.

In a swift reaction, Majigiri said he resigned as the state chairman of the party and officially handed over all the documents of the party to Uli even before the conduct of the party’s governorship and other primaries in the state.

Majigiri, who contested the gubernatorial primary but lost to Lado, is the current PDP House of Representatives candidate for Mashi/Dutsi Federal Constituency. He described the decision taken by some members of the state working committee of the party as politically mischievous and rubbish.

According to him: “They are just being mischievous. Any communication from the party, have you ever seen my name? People are calling me chairman but that is not official. What is official is Salisu Lawal Uli, my deputy is the acting chairman, and that is what the constitution provides.

“Where did the constitution provide for a candidate to change the leadership of the party even if that is the case? And even the local government chairmen they mentioned there, are not constitutionally responsible for changing the leadership of the party.

“The constitution is talking about the executive committees at all levels: wards, local government, state and national executive committee of the party, are responsible for removing any member of the party or leadership, not one segment of a candidate. It is rubbish. It is politically mischievous and they are going nowhere”.

Alas, the turmoil rocking the PDP escalated when Uli and some staunch supporters of the party believed to be his loyalists, announced the suspension of the state governorship flag bearer of the PDP, Lado, from the party.

Uli said the party suspended Lado from the party for conspiracy, insubordination and defamation of character of officials of the party.

He said 11 out of 14 members of the state working committee alongside 26 local government chairmen of the party had endorsed the suspension of Lado from the party with immediate effect.

According to him: “We suspended the governorship candidate of the party, Senator Yakubu Lado on the grounds of conspiracy, insubordination and defamation of character of officials. We relied on section 57 subsection 3 and section 58 of the PDP constitution to suspend him from the party”.

But some chieftains of the party who are in Lado’s camp argued that Uli and his supporters lack constitutional power to sack him from the party. “We suspended them (Majigiri and Uli) so they don’t have power to even spearhead the affairs of the party nor sack the governorship candidate of the party who is duly elected”, Sanusi Ali, the secretary of the party said.

Some political observers argued that the removal of Majigiri and Uli as leaders of the party by those they described as latter-day members, may abridge the already foreseeable chances of the party winning the forthcoming 2023 polls.

According to the observers, those that plotted for their sacking may have been carried away by blind followership to know that Majigiri, Uli and other founding fathers of the PDP in the state built it on the principles of justice, equity and fairness and it is the principles that held the party to where it is today.

Pundits, however, opined that Uli and his allies acted hastily for suspending Lado from the party a few hours after they were sacked from office. The situation which, they said, is unhealthy and has brought permutations in the party.

Also, Majigiri and the former Governor of the state,  Ibrahim Shehu Shema and other executives who have never defected from the party for once since its formation in 1998, are strongly behind Senator Iyorchia Ayu-led national executive committee of the party.

On the other hand, Lado who is a strong ally of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is believed to be the brain behind the current crisis rocking the state chapter of the PDP following his feud with the leader of the party (Shema) and his associates within and outside the state.

Surprisingly, the recent defection of the former Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr. Mustapha Inuwa to the PDP, has also triggered the party’s crisis which is seemingly tearing the hitherto peaceful umbrella apart because Shema and his loyalists are said to be against Inuwa’s entrance into the party.

It was reliably gathered that Shema and his staunch supporters are vehemently against Inuwa’s presence in the party because of their long-standing feud that apparently landed them in court over Shema’s actions during his tenure as governor of the state.

However, the governorship candidate of the party (Lado) who believed that Inuwa is more important than Shema in his age-long political ambition of becoming the governor of Katsina, had since appointed him as ‘Jagora’ (leader) of his 2023 campaign as captured in almost all the party’s posters and billboards across the state.

But Lado’s decision did not go down well with some leaders of the party, especially those in Shema’s camp, who are insisting that the ex-governor is still the leader of the party considering his political antecedents and achievements during his eight-year tenure as governor of the state.

Therefore, for members of the PDP who have been quarantined and removed from public affairs in Katsina state for about eight years to subvert the constitution of the party’s long-held tradition of inclusiveness is a sure way to derail the party from getting back to its winning ways.

Consequently, except there is sudden change of mind in the two warring camps of the Katsina PDP, the opposition party would be going into the next general elections with a sharply divided house and apparently without a governorship candidate.