Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Umar Sani, has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of attempting to prevent the party from producing a candidate ahead of the forthcoming gubernatorial election, insisting that the governor’s political manoeuvres are designed to secure his own personal survival rather than protect the party’s interests.
Speaking during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, Sani said, “Governor Adeleke does not want PDP to field a candidate. He believes that there is a problem within the PDP, whose signature will be recognised by INEC and so forth and so on.
“He’s trying to move to another party, and according to him, that he will now get the seat and then return back to PDP. And PDP says, no, we cannot do that. What we want is we want somebody to run on our platform. Because what will the party look like if we have a platform and we do not use anybody on that platform? Then how will other people be reacting to other platforms? They will run away and give the same excuse. Let me go and get something from somewhere else and come back. So we said, no, anybody who wants to contest must use our platform. And so that’s why we conducted, it was not hijacked by anybody, it was done peacefully, it was all over the social media, it was done peacefully.”
Responding to arguments that Adeleke’s strategy may be pragmatic—given the uncertainty over which PDP faction INEC may eventually recognise—Sani maintained that the governor has the constitutional right to defect, but must not hinder the party from presenting its own candidate.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not supposed to support or oppose his decision,” he said. “His decision is entirely his. He who wears the shoe knows where it pinches most. So if he decides to go, then he should not allow the party that he’s leaving, not to field another candidate in his own place.
“Nobody is saying he cannot go. It’s a constitutional right for him to go anywhere he wants to go. But let him not also be a stumbling block to our own party fielding a candidate. That is just the major argument. It is not about whether his going is right or wrong or whether it was a smart move to move somewhere else.”
Addressing speculation that the PDP may be fielding a placeholder pending the resolution of the party’s internal issues, Sani confirmed that the party already has a candidate produced through its primaries.
“As it is now, we have a candidate. But a candidate can be a placeholder and a placeholder can be a candidate. So in any case, there is a period where we are allowed to make substitutions. So if we want to make substitutions, we can make substitutions. But as it is now, we have a candidate who has emerged from the primaries.”
Melissa Enoch
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