The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) interest watchdog group, the Concerned PDP League (CPDPL) has described the statement credited to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Kano State Chapter Chairman, Mr. Shehu Sagagi as purveying his principal as larger than PDP figure, is a cheap strategy and blackmail to hand twist the party into Sen. Kwankwaso subjugation.
Mr Sagagi was quoted to have said; ” Allowing Kwankwaso Leave Will End PDP In Kano and Most Northern States” during Saraki’s presidential campaign tour of Kano State.
The group said, “If only PDP will stop what we call slotism, we won’t be in this recurrent mess, and if Mr. Sagagi cannot be loyal to PDP, he should quietly quit and called on the National Working Committee (NWC) to immediately suspend him inline with the relevant sections of the PDP constitution as amended, 2017”.
Their reaction was contained in a press release issued and signed by the Leader, Comrade D. Z. Warmate, General Secretary, Tasiu Muhammed, and Media and Advocacy director, Rashidat N. Abubakar.
The Press Release:
We read with great dismay and disgust the statement credited to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Kano state Chapter Chairman, Mr. Shehu Sagagi, where he bragged that the exit from PDP of the former proconsul of Kano state, Sen. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso will lead to its extinction in Kano and most northern states.
He said, “Kwankwaso was offended during the Party Zonal Chairmanship election when he was told that as a leader, all forms would be given to him and that only one person would be allowed to contest, but to his dismay forms were sold to some persons who have been doing anti-party activities in Kano”.
“And instead of the party to pacify him, they act as if nothing had happened.” This made him reconsider his position in the party. If he is allowed to go that is the end of the party in Kano and most Northern states where he has supporters.” This happened during a visit by the Sen. B Saraki Presidential Campaign team to Kano.
We cannot afford to continue to accept the lies of leaders of the larger-than-PDP image some of them and their supporters create. How will someone greedily demand that all the party forms be handed over to him? Is he the only PDP member and leader in the zone? He has become a clique in the wheel of PDP progress in the North West. PDP’s North West Zonal Congress has not been conclusively conducted to date on account of violence and court injunction by him and his supporters.
We have said it times without numbers that if only PDP will stop what we call slotism, that’s allocating positions to leaders who in turn give those positions to their incompetent straw men, which in the end, create strong men at the expense of strong PDP, we won’t be in this recurrent mess.
Let us remind Mr. Sagagi should in case he has forgotten that, contrary to his Claims and political statistics available, Sen. R. M. Kwankwaso defects alongside Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and four (4) Northern Governor’s [Niger (Babangida Aliyu), Kwara (Abdulfatah Ahmed), Sokoto (Aliyu Wamakko), Adamawa (Murtala Nyako)], and even with high-level betrayal by some northern PDP leaders, PDP neither collapsed nor ended.
The 2015 Presidential Election Result Review from the 19th Northern States below is a testament to the fact that Mr. Sagagi’s claim is unfounded:
Adamawa: APC=374,701 PDP=251,664, Bauchi: APC=931,598PDP=86,085, Benue: APC=373,961PDP=303,737, Borno: APC=473,543PDP=25,640, Gombe: APC 361,245PDP 96,873, Jigawa: APC 885,988PDP 142,904, Kaduna: APC 1,127,760PDP 484,085, Kano: APC 1,903,999PDP 215,779, Katsina: APC 1,345,44PDP 198,937, Kebbi: APC 567,883PDP 100,972, Kogi: APC 264,851PDP 149,987, Kwara: APC 302,146PDP 132,602, Nassarawa: APC 236,838PDP 273,460, Niger: APC 657,678PDP 149,222, Plateau: APC 429,140PDP 549,615, Sokoto: APC 671,926PDP 152,199, Taraba: APC 261,326PDP 310,800, Yobe: APC 446,265PDP 25,526 and Zamfara: APC 612,202PDP 144,833.
We will further punch his lies with more statistics by comparing the votes PDP got In the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections in the five (5) states that PDP leaders decamped against when they are in the party.
Meanwhile, without Sen. Kwankwaso PDP got 215,779 votes in 2015 and with him only scored 391,593 in Kano state. And without Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the then Governor Murtala Nyako in Adamawa state PDP got 251,664 in 2015 and with them PDP scored 410, 266.
In the same vine with Kwara State where Sen. B. Saraki and Abdulfatah Ahmed as governor then left PDP got 132,602 in 2015 and with the duo, PDP could only score 138,134 in 2019. Also in Sokoto State without His Excellency Aminu W. Tambuwal, the then-Speaker of the House of Representatives and the then Governor Aliyu Wamakko PDP got 152,199 in 2015 and 361,604 in 2019. In the then Governor Babangida Aliyu Niger State PDP got 149,222 and in 2019 scored 218, 052. This is exposure, so where are the bases for the hyping and bragging?
It’s unfortunate that the same person, PDP had serviced his interest to a point he became governor twice, without any military or paramilitary background made him a minister of defence, gave the Kano state 2019 gubernatorial ticket to his son-in-law, Mr. Abba Kabir Yusuf and also in the last congress gave his Straw man the Chairmanship of the party in Kano state. For all these, what has he significantly contributed to PDP?
However, the fact remains that the statement by Mr. Shehu Sagagi is an indictment to northern PDP NWC members, CAUCUS members, NEC members, BoT members, Governors Forum members, and other critical with a higher margin of votes in the 2023 election, it will become a prove of their poor popularity as insinuated by the Kano state Chairman.
We would not forget to commend His Excellency Sen. David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark, GCON ( retired Brigadier General) for his popular statement “If I will be the last man standing I will remain in PDP, even though everyone leaves” and also Alhaji Sule Lamido’s statement “my colleagues out of frustration left the party. Anger and emotions took over them. But for me, I chose to stay back because I cannot simply renounce my history”.
We, therefore, urge the teeming supporters of our great party in the north to discountenance the false claim of Mr. Shehu Sagagi whose offence is contained in section 10 subsection 1(k), as we call on the NWC to immediately suspend Mr. Sagagi by activating section 58(1)a,b,c and 59,(1)d, f.
