Former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido has alleged that governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deliberately blocked his attempt to contest for the party’s national chairmanship.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, Lamido claimed that the governors refused to issue him a nomination form and ignored a court order directing the party to allow him to participate in the race.
He stated that the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, personally called him and urged him to step down, insisting that the governors believed he would be too independent if elected.
According to Lamido, “Bala, the governor of Bauchi, called and said, ‘My elder brother, you are stronger than us. If we make you chairman, we can’t influence you.’”
Lamido said he reminded the governor of the PDP’s history, noting that the party should not be controlled by a single group.
“I told him, ‘When PDP was formed, you were not there. A party with history should not be controlled by one person,’”he said.
He added that despite obtaining a court order compelling the PDP to open the contest to him, the governors chose not to comply and instead filed an appeal. Lamido also rejected the outcome of the recent convention, which produced Tanimu Turaki as national chairman.
He described the entire process as flawed and unacceptable, declaring, “That convention is null and void.”
Lamido called on senior party stakeholders, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to intervene and help reorganise the PDP. He emphasised that the party must return to its founding values in order to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy and promote national development.
