BIG STORY

By

Anas Sani Anka

Managing Editor

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A Letter has been trending on the Social Media allegedly written by the leadership of the People’s Democratic Party in Mayana Ward of Gusau over the plan to discipline one of the PDP Gubernatorial aspirants in the forth coming 2023 General elections.

The Letter which is verified is verified to be genuinely written by Hon. Aliyu Hassan Gusau the PDP Secretary Mayana Ward and signed on the 6th of October 2022 has been in circulation on the social media.

In the Letter Eng. Ibrahim Shehu is accused of working against the lawful activities of the party which is contrary to the provisions of section 58(1) of the PDP Constitution 2017 as amended.

He was asked to appear before a Disciplinary Committee constituted to investigate him in person on the 6th of October 2022 between 10:00 to 11:00am.

He was also asked to come along with his party membership Card for authentication by the committee.

WE HAVE SERVED HIM WITH THE LETTER OF INVITATION VIA WHATSAPP

The Chairman of PDP Mayana ward Hamisu Muhammad confirmed to Thunder Blowers that the letter is genuinely from the leadership of the PDP in Mayana ward.

He said the party leadership has given Engr. Ibrahim Shehu from 6th to 9th of October 2022 to appear before the committee for interaction over alleged breach of section 58(1) of the PDP constitution 2017 as amended.

But he said all effort to reach Eng. Shehu or any of his political aides for him to be served has failed hence they resorted to serve him with the Letter via his WhatsApp and it has been acknowledged by him as well.

He further told this medium that for the avoidance of any conflict, the Committee on the daily basis goes to the party state Secretariat the venue scheduled for the interaction so that at anytime he appeared before the Committee he can be given the chance for the interface.

REACTION OF THE PDP MEMBERS OF THE NEW DEVELOPMENT

Many stakeholders believed the decisions to institute investigation against Eng. Ibrahim Shehu may be the beginning of another political gamble for the PDP.

A member of the party in Gusau Bala Aminu who was interviewed by this medium on phone said whoever is advising the PDP to be wading into crises all the time is the worst enemy of the party because what is important for the Zamfara PDP according to him is political reconciliation with all the aggrieved governorship aspirants.

“The law allowed members to head to courts where they feel the party has not done justice to them and for me going to court to seek for redress shall never be an action against the party more or less where the party feels it is not important to listen to the grievances of its aggrieved members”.

Another member of the party in Shinkafi Malam Aminu Shinkafi said what PDP required at this material time is to continue to mobilize people of goodwill for the party because PDP is not strengthening instruments of mobilization for the 2023 election.

“There are people with genuine goodwill for the PDP but the greatest challenge for the party is that the leadership is not on the ground to coordinate the mobilization of interested people into the party and instead they are busy with internal party crises. Many who wanted to join the party are becoming scared that the party is not ready to put its house into order and confront the ruling party head-on”.

He noted that in Shinkafi the ruling APC is day-in-day-out mobilizing supporters despite the fact that they have political power brokers and this is what the opposition PDP shall be doing not the ruling party.

As for Garba Muhammad Gummi, a PDP supporter, he said since the annulment of the PDP primaries, many people who have genuine good will for the party had become scared thinking the internal crises within the party if not managed well could lead to it’s crash eventually.

“world over those who contested and lost the party primaries are always contacted by the winning team and certain agreements are usually reached for possible compensation and as for Zamfara PDP we don’t see this happening instead some privileged person’s within the PDP are instigating decisions that will further disunite the party”.

He cited reference with the ruling APC in Zamfara noting that, when Abdulmalik Garba Gajam secured a nomination form, the seating Governor together with the party stakeholders took some deliberate steps to ensure that he stepped down amicably for the Governor even before reaching the stage of conducting competitive party primaries and that had helped in keeping Zamfara APC united at the leading front.

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE STEPS TAKEN BY ZAMFARA PDP

A Zamfara based lawyer who does not want to be named told this medium that, it is not just enough for the party to invite someone to appear before a disciplinary committee by citing a section of the constitution.

According to him the section 58(1) relied often to invite Ibrahim Shehu listed many offenses and in the spirit of natural justice the party need to identify in specific terms which of the offenses listed in that sections that was committed by Engr. Ibrahim Shehu noting that unless that is done he cannot be punished.

He also said the names of the composition of the committee members are not made known to Engr. Ibrahim Shehu and he need to know them and be certain of their neutrality.

He warned that if the PDP is taking the advance step to suspend Engr. Ibrahim Shehu because he is challenging the primary election conducted then they are getting it wrong because that won’t stop him from pursuing his fresh case in court.

“He was issued the party nomination form and he participated in all the two primary elections conducted so he has the locus standi to challenge the irregularities he presumed to be conducted during the conduct of the primary. Suspending him if that was the plan cannot really solve the problem of the Zamfara PDP”.

The lawyer added that “if it is true that they want to suspend Eng.Ibrahim Shehu using the rumour of Ibrahim Shehu having old membership card then they are getting it wrong because the same old membership card was used in clearing him by the PDP Screening Committee to contest so they will raise an empty argument that will make the entire action appear as laughabale”.

The lawyer advised that the best option is to come to the Negotiation Table with Engr. Ibrahim Shehu just the way  it was negotiated with Malam Wadatau Madawaki because anything short of that will further aggravate tensions within the Zamfara PDP.