EXCLUSIVE: How PDP Leaders are Sabotaging Party, Working for APC – Sagagi

EXCLUSIVE: How PDP Leaders are Sabotaging Party, Working for APC – Sagagi

By Ozumi Abdul

The Chairman of the Kano State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Shehu Wada Sagagi, has blamed the factional crisis in the state on the national body.

Sagagi told POLITICS DIGEST in an exclusive chat on Monday that Sadiq Muhammad Wali whose name the national body of the party submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) never participated in the primary election.

He stressed that it was Mohammed Sani Abacha that participated in the validly contested state’s gubernatorial primary that was monitored by INEC.

“There is no controversy about the primaries in the state. You see, this controversy is induced by the national executive body. They know the candidate they submitted to the INEC never participated in the primaries, they know it was Mohammed Abacha that participated in the primaries monitored by INEC that produced him, they know all these, but because even some of them are suspecting that we are working for the NNPP, that’s why they made sure that they muscled us out so that we didn’t form a formidable opposition.

“They are all helping APC, we don’t know whether they are on their payroll, we don’t know”, he said.

Asked if the aggrieved candidate Sani Abacha is in court to challenge the decision, Sagagi swiftly acknowledged that there is already a legal duel in the court challenging the emergence of Muhammad Wali as the substantive gubernatorial candidate of PDP in the state.

He disclosed the circumstances surrounding the ouster of the presidential candidate of New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, from the PDP fold barely a year ago.

Sagagi said he made efforts to stop Kwankwaso’s defection but those who had an axe to grind with him pushed him out.

Sagagi then laughed off the rumour making the rounds that he is a mole planted in the PDP by Kwankwaso’s NNPP to work against the interest of PDP in the state.

He admitted that Kwankwaso was his boss but he parted ways with him based on conviction when he left the PDP.

“You see, this insinuation and accusation they will not stop, because even at the national level I told them, leaders don’t act on hearsay but substantiated claims. They have been saying that I’m working for Kwankwaso, I’m working for Kwankwaso, I’m working for NNPP but let them substantiate it, let them come out with a proof that I Shehu Wada Sagagi is working for Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, or the NNPP.

“Kwankwaso was my boss, and we only parted ways based on conviction and opinions. He felt the atmosphere in the PDP was not conducive for him, then he decided to move.

“I did everything possible to make sure those who are forcing him out of the party have a rethink, but they didn’t listen to me. I even wrote a letter, I wrote a paper and distributed them at the national executive committee about 150 copies and more, and people have read that, but they refused to listen to me, and that’s why he has to move out. Not that we quarrelled, we never quarrelled, what those people want is for me to come out abusing Kwankwaso, castigating him, that I say I will not do because he has not done anything wrong as far as I’m concerned, because the atmosphere for him was not conducive then he has the right to move out of the party, but the atmosphere for me in the PDP is conducive and that is why I decided to remain in the party”, he said.

He enjoined the aggrieved members of the party to sheathe their swords and put their differences behind them, noting that PDP remains the party to beat in 2023.