A fresh crisis is brewing in the Adamawa State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) over an alleged plot by some stakeholders in the state to stop the new Governor, James Bala Ngilari, from purchasing the governorship nomination form and forcing him to contest for the senatorial election instead of the governorship in the February 2015 elections.
As part of this plot, there is an underground scheme to remove the state Chairman of the party, Joel Madaki, on the grounds that he is a Christian just as the governor.
According to top sources within the PDP, the crisis, which has religious undertone, led to the impeachment of the former Governor, Murtala Nyako, and Ngilari.
The PDP source attributed this to Muslim stakeholders who do not want a Christian to become the governor of the state following the impeachment of Nyako, hence the attempted impeachment of Ngilari as well because he is Christian.
The plot which is traced to senior aides of President Goodluck Jonathan and top leaders of the PDP is premised on the argument that Muslims are not happy that a Christian is governor.
They are also of the opinion that if allowed to contest the 2015 governorship election, it would foist the Christians in a vantage position over the Muslims in the state.
A top PDP source in Abuja said after the eight-year tenure of Boni Haruna who is a Christian, it follows that a Muslim should continue, but with the return of Ngilari as governor and to allow him to contest the 2015 governorship election would put the Muslims at a disadvantage.
It was for this reason that the Muslims wanted the PDP state chairman who is also a Christian removed ato prevent a situation where Christians occupy two most important offices in the land; the governor and state party chairman.
But the state PDP stakeholders at a meeting in Abuja argued that there the nothing wrong with having two Christians being the governor and state chairman of PDP in the state.
According to the stakeholders, “After all, when Nyako was the governor, Mijinjiwa Kaugama was the state chairman and both of them came from the same ward and are Muslims.”
The meeting of the state PDP stakeholders blamed the brewing crisis on the Fulani stock which they said constituted only 23 per cent of the voting population compared to the 87 per cent of other ethnic minority in the state.
Sources further hinted that a presidential aide and top official of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) had hatched plans to remove Madaki as state chairman and replace him with a Muslim man, Kawargi Jada.
A first pointer to the brewing crisis is to compel the PDP NWC to dissolve the State Working Committee (SWC) and appoint a caretaker committee to be led by a Muslim.
The plot to remove Madaki as state chairman stems from the fact that he is seen as “an obstacle” to stopping the governor from contesting the 2015 governorship election.
The PDP leadership is insisting that the new governor should only complete the remaining term of office of Nyako and has therefore urged him to contest the senatorial election.
The PDP claims that the office of the governor in 2015 has been zoned to Adamawa central senatorial district, where the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, is being primed to become the next governor.
As part of this plan, the Office of the National Organising Secretary of the PDP has been directed to deny the new governor from buying the governorship nomination form and the Expression of Interest access to that if the governor is interested in any elective position, he should purchase the form for the senate from his zone.
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