- Cites PDP’s Crisis For Planned Defection
- Says Damagum Cause Of Problem
By Kolawole Ojebisi
Former Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, has disclosed that he is considering leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Suswam spoke during an interview on Channels Television, ‘Politics Today’ on Wednesday (today), citing the lingering leadership crisis rocking the former ruling party.
“There is a possibility that I will; there are so many alternatives. There is LP, ADA, NNPP. APC can be alternative,” he said .
“APC, after all, is the ruling party, so I’m not ruling that out.” Suswam added.
The former governor made this declaration weeks after saying that the PDP was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) adding that the party’s chance of survival was 50/50
The PDP is grappling with protracted crisis which has factionalized the party among other fallouts.
On Wednesday, the party made another efforts to resolve ithe protracted crisis as its acting Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum, announced the reinstatement of Samel Anyanwu as the party’s National Secretary, describing the move as a “difficult decision which backed by majority of the party’s stakeholders”.
He also announced the suspension of the party’s National Executive Council meeting scheduled for June 30th.
However, this latest move appears to have further compounded the crisis as the National Working Committee of the PDP rejected Damagum’s declarations hours after the pronuncements were made, asserting that no such decision had been made by any recognised organ of the party.
Weighing in on the crisis during the interview, Suswam attributed the inability to get it resolved to Damagum’s lack of leadership skills.
He said, “There is no integrity in the leadership of PDP, I’m happy that Wike said it.
“I have consistently said that Damagum is not a leader. What has happened here is that after the meeting with INEC, a good leader would have met with the National Working Committee members to brief them before holding any press conference.
“Damagum has been the problem of the PDP since he assumed the acting National Chairman of the party. The party has been drifting downward, I have said this thing consistently.
“First and foremost, he breached the provisions of the constitution which said that he must act for a period and this position must go back to the North Central.”
