Lado, Inuwa Battle for Soul of Katsina PDP

Francis Sardauna writes that the internal crisis currently plaguing the PDP in Katsina State might engulf the party if genuine efforts are not made to reconcile aggrieved members.

From the build-up to the aftermath of the 2023 election, the Katsina State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been mired in internal turmoil marked by leadership tussles being perpetrated by some office-seeking members of the main opposition political entity in the state.

Tranquility reigned within the PDP until the 2023 governorship candidate of the party, Senator Yakubu Lado, held a meeting with his political allies in Kano prior to the 2023 general election and dissolved the leadership of the party.

During the meeting, some PDP officials believed to be loyalists of Lado, removed the party’s chairman, Hon. Salisu Yusuf, and his deputy, Alhaji Salisu Lawal Uli, over alleged loss of confidence and trust in their leadership.

The then 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, elected the Daura zonal vice-chairman of the party, Hon. Lawal Magaji, as acting chairman.

But 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 member for Mashi/Dutsi Federal Constituency. He described the decision hitherto taken by some members of the state working committee of the party as politically mischievous and rubbish.

As a result, the party broke into two factions — the Lado camp and the group of the former governor of the state, Ibrahim Shema. The Shema-led faction insisted on the resignation of Magaji as a condition for supporting Lado in the 2023 governorship poll.

However, Lado’s faction rejected this demand and instead reluctantly accepted the defection of the former Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr Mustapha Inuwa, into the party and appointed him as the leader of the leading opposition party in the state.

This decision did not go down well with Shema and his supporters, who insisted 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.

But Lado, who then believed that Inuwa was more important than Shema in his age-long political ambition of becoming the governor of Katsina, insisted that Inuwa remains the ‘Jagora’ (leader) of his 2023 campaign as captured in almost all the party’s posters and billboards across the state.

While other political parties were gearing up for the elections, the conflict between Lado and Shema dominated discussions within the PDP. This resulted in conflicting strategies during the election, ultimately leading to its (PDP) defeat against Dikko Umaru Radda of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Efforts to unite both factions ahead of the governorship election hit the rocks, as the Lado and Shema camps refused appeals from party leaders and members within and outside the state to mend their age-long differences.

After the election, tensions between the Lado and Shema factions escalated, leading to Shema’s defection to the ruling APC this year. He left Majigiri and Uli who have been described by pundits as his political sons in PDP.

Described by political analysts as infiltrators, Majigiri and Uli, who worked against PDP and strongly opposed the defection of Inuwa to the party, have now joined forces against Lado in apparent pursuance of their political agenda ahead of the 2027 general election.

But other school of thought argued that Majigiri and Uli are spies within the party for their political godfather, Shema, and the ruling APC hence, their new alliance with Inuwa who was their political foe.

The new Katsina PDP clique has since rejected the state caretaker committee inaugurated by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party whose membership is alleged to be loyalists of Senator Yakubu Lado.

At a recent press conference, the group vowed not to recognise or work with the caretaker committee because its composition was against the spirit and letter of their engagement with the NWC of the party.

Senator Umar Ibrahim Tsauri, who addressed journalists on behalf of the group, said they would not participate in any programme or activity of the caretaker committee in the state.

They described the caretaker committee as a one-man teleguided committee aimed at draining and derailing the great, committed and highly spirited members of the PDP in the state.

While proclaiming themselves as a group that is resolute in redeeming the enviable image and glory of the party in Katsina, members of the clique unanimously rejected the caretaker committee in its entirety.

The group said: “We have, as a group that is resolute in redeeming the enviable image and glory of the PDP in Katsina State, wish to state in no uncertain terms that we will not recognise or work with this caretaker committee.

“We will not work with the committee because its appointment is clearly against the spirit and letter of our engagement with you as representative of the National Working Committee and senior elders of the PDP in the North-west.

“We shall not partake in any programme or activity initiated or under the direction of the said caretaker committee in the state. We will continue to work tirelessly for the unity and good progress of our party and its teeming well-meaning members in Katsina State.”

In a swift reaction, Lawal Audi-Yar’Adua, a political ally of Senator Lado, described members of the group nicknamed Katsina PDP caucus and elders committees as fake PDP members with “nothing to offer” in the political landscape of the state.

He said their myopic focus on 2027 betrays a disregard for the pressing needs of the party, adding that it was high time they ceased their bumbling escapades and prioritised the unity of the PDP in Katsina State.

While accusing members of the committees of prioritising personal ambitions over the party’s welfare and development, Yar’Adua said the PDP will remain strong and united to rescue and rebuild Katsina.

Yar’Adua said: “Those against the formation of the Katsina PDP caretaker committee are not genuine PDP members. These are people who have turned PDP into a business venture. They are relentlessly pursuing their personal agendas at the expense of our party.”

He said most members of the Katsina PDP caucus and elders committees indulged in anti-party activities during the 2023 poll and “they are APC agents parading themselves as PDP members in the state”.

Meanwhile, Lado who is set to re-launch his political career following his defeat in the last year’s governorship election, is strongly believed to be warming up already for the 2027 race.

He is currently plotting to retain his grip on the PDP, but the conflict between him and former Governor Shema, who has since dumped the PDP for APC, has deeply impacted all facets of the party in the state.

Surprisingly, after Shema’s defection to APC, the internal squabble over who will control the soul of Katsina PDP, is now between Inuwa and Lado’s factions.

Thus, the state PDP caretaker committee invariably acting on Lado’s instructions, has denied interested chairmanship aspirants, who are loyal to Inuwa, access to forms ahead of the party’s state congress.

The prospective aspirants who visited the state PDP headquarters along Kano road, for the purchase of the form didn’t meet any member of the caretaker committee.

Addressing newsmen shortly after leading the intended contestants to the party secretariat, a member of the stakeholders committee of the party, Salisu Uli, expressed shock at the absence of the caretaker committee members.

Uli explained that five days before the closing date for the sales of the forms, the committee should be on-site to attend to the contestants in order to meet up with the deadline for the congress.

These obstacles, among others, have impeded the PDP’s capacity to present a cohesive stance on issues in the state because Lado and Inuwa have engaged in a supremacy battle for the party’s structure in the state.

The crux of the tension, it was gathered, is a fear by legacy members of PDP in the state that Inuwa intends to take over total control of the party he joined months prior to the 2023 governorship election in the state.

But supporters of the former Katsina SSG say he is merely seeking to unite aggrieved members and ensure proper integration of new members into the structure of the party across the state in his bid to further strengthen the PDP ahead of the 2027 poll.

With this fierce battle for the party’s structure, political pundits argued that the internal crisis currently plaguing the PDP in Katsina State might engulf the party if genuine efforts are not made to reconcile aggrieved members by the NWC of the party.