The crisis bedevilling the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Katsina State has taken another dimension, with forms supplied from Abuja for congresses being allegedly hijacked by another group.
The steering committee, under the leadership of the former party’s administrative secretary, Alhaji Salisu Uli, was left stranded at the party secretariat in Katsina yesterday when he led delegates from six local governments to purchase the forms.
“It’s really strange; there was no official to attend to us at the Secretariat,” Uli remarked.
Uli, while briefing newsmen, said, “This is a crucial time. It’s now five days until the deadline, but the party officials were nowhere to be found.”
“The party caretaker chairman was not in the office; no one is on sit, not even the admin secretary, a position I held and know its functions,” he added.
Although Mr Uli claimed there was no split in the party, pointing out that all the top notches of the party are intact, Tribune Online has gathered that the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in the 2023 general elections, Senator Yakubu Lado Danmarke, is not with the group.
The senator is alleged to have pocketed the party’s caretaker committee and is dictating the decisions of the officials. He is accused of hijacking the Congress forms to be sold to members of his camp.
At the party headquarters, efforts to contact the committee chairman, Alhaji Musa Abdulkarim, have been futile, leaving stakeholders in a state of uncertainty.
“We will keep monitoring and decide our next steps,” Uli stated, hinting at a possible escalation if the situation isn’t resolved swiftly.
It could be recalled that the PDP in Katsina plunged into crisis after 2023, when the gubernatorial candidate, Senator Yakubu Lado Danmarke, decided not to challenge the results at the tribunal.
Despite his explanations that he had no substantive support as some of the PDP notches had either decamped to the APC or worked for the APC during the elections, he was alleged to have compromised with the APC, which was declared the winner of the elections. The accusations, which Denmark denied,.
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