….As N-East chairmen mull support for him

By John Alechenu & Charly Agwam

Governors elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party PDP, are currently seeking a soft-landing for the embattled National Chairman, Amb. Umar Damagum, Vanguard has learnt.

This followed a truce they brokered between feuding members of the National Working Committee, NWC, yesterday

This came on a day chairmen of the party in the North-East threw their weight behind embattled PDP national chairman and other national officials.

A high ranking member of the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, who spoke on the issue, on condition of anonymity, said: “Our governors are working seriously behind the scene. After securing a ceasefire among feuding NWC members, they are now focused on ensuring our NEC meeting holds.

“As things stand, the NEC meeting earlier scheduled for October 24 may not hold, in order to allow time to calm frayed nerves.

“Like the chairman of the PDP-GF, Bala Mohammed, said, consultations are ongoing. The governors have reached out to all parties in the leadership tussle to cease fire and end the media war.

“They are also exploring how best to give Damagum a soft-landing for him to step down and revert to his oroginal position as deputy national chairman (North).

“We, by this, I mean major party stakeholders, are also looking at the possibility of having a committed party man from the North Central to step in and stabilise our party before the next elective convention.”

PDP N-East chairmen mull support for Damagum

In a communique read by Adamawa State PDP chairman, Tahir Shehu, in Bauchi yesterday, the chairmen maintained that their group aligned itself with the position of PDP governors, BOT, National Assembly caucus and all the major critical stakeholders in the zone.

It read:  “As for the national chairmanship tussle, the meeting wishes to align itself totally with the position of the governors, the BOT, National Assembly caucus and all the major critical stakeholders in the zone. This, we believe, shall bring decorum and sanity that will lead the party to lofty height.

“The meeting acknowledged and appreciated the unparalleled infrastructural development by PDP governors in their respective states and urged them not to relent on the solid foundation they had laid.T

“The meeting was satisfied with the tremendous support and encouragement received from the PDP governors for the zonal office and all the state chapters of the party.”

“It passed vote of confidence on our three governors in the zone, namely Adamawa, Bauchi and Taraba for performing very well and urge them to continue providing the dividends of democracy to the people of the zone and Nigeria at large.’’

Vanguard