The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has criticised party leaders for defecting to what he described as “a party that has no office.”
Mohammed made the criticism
on Thursday while speaking at the PDP’s ongoing Consultative Conference of Founding Fathers and Stakeholders in Abuja.
His comments follow high-profile exits to the ADC, including former VP Atiku Abubakar and ex-Senate President David Mark.
“PDP has history, a legacy, a structure everywhere and the governors are doing their best. But because we are being hunted and we know what we are going through, and it is not for us to be cowardly and be talking about it”, Governor Bala said.
He continued: “Politics is local. Some may go due to certain reasons, certain permutations, calculations, but I think they will be proved wrong. Even our elders that have gone, we don’t want to diminish them, we don’t want to denigrate or abuse them.
“We are telling them with humility: come back. That’s what the National Chairman has said — come back. This is what you have built. Where there are governors, where there are senators, members of the Houses, speakers, offices, local government chairmen, you are going to a party that has no office. It’s a malady.
“Maybe in terms of their own calculation, they want to actualize their aspiration — to get tickets. But do you want to get a ticket and lose? So please, come back. You have no reason to go anywhere.”
Lamenting about the situation of some leaders in the party, he said: “We cannot take indiscipline to a level where it becomes contagious. If you are in PDP, you are in PDP. You cannot be in PDP and be in coalition with another party. We cannot do this. But you have all the time to decide. Coalition is an aberration, yes, I said it.
“You cannot belong to two places. You cannot be a man and a woman at the same time. Be who you will be. But we will still give you the opportunity to have a thought, because you are our leaders.
“But if you are going, don’t demarket us. Demarketing of the PDP is not fair. Most of you actualized your political aspirations through this party. Some of them left us and caused our loss in 2015, and yet we accommodated them. And they left and came back. Some of them became governors, and some of them took tickets, just sprayed. It is only in PDP that you get that.”
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