The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday moved the governorship primary for Taraba State to Abuja to enable the fraudulent installation of a candidate favored by billionaire and former army general, Theophilus Danjuma.
The convention to elect a gubernatorial candidate was to have taken place earlier this week but the National Working Committee of the PDP refused to send representatives to conduct the election because they feared that a majority of the 720 delegates slated for the convention were loyal to the former Acting Governor, Umar Garba.
The rest were looking to cast their vote for another contestant, David Sabo Kente, the elder brother of a former speaker of the Taraba State Assembly.
The party reportedly sold the governorship slot to General Danjuma, who selected Samuel Ortom-Darius Isiaku, a former Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs to get the ticket. Isiaku however had no single delegate that was willing to vote for him.
Upon learning of the disastrous outing that awaited the former Minister in Jalingo, the PDP called for a “Special Delegates Convention” to be held at its Wadata headquarters in Abuja. It expanded the convention to accommodate sundry political office holders as “special delegates” in order to rig the outcome in Mr. Isiaku’s favor.
Sensing the plot, Alhaji Umar hired three jets to take delegates loyal to him to yesterday.
Upon arriving in Abuja, the legitimate delegates invaded the PDP headquarters and embarked on a serious protest, chanting anti-party slogans and denouncing Danjuma. That protest did not deter the party from announcing Mr. Isyaku as the PDP candidate for governor in Taraba state.
SaharaReporters had previously reported that Danjuma was the arrowhead of those that imposed Governor Danbaba Suntai, despite being severely incapacitated in an October 2012 air crash, upon the state. Recently they also worked to bring back the deputy governor who had earlier been fired by Suntai using their connections at the Supreme Court. Our sources stated that the new Chief Justice of Nigeria, who is from Taraba, facilitated the judicial deal that brought back the former deputy governor to Suntai to power.Disaffected member of the PDP in the state told Saharareporters that they are left with no option that to decamp encase to the All Progressive Congress party so as to hand the PDP the defeat they deserve during the upcoming general elections in February 2015.