KADUNA PDP FAITHFUL ALLEGE BIAS BY PARTY CHAIRMAN

By NBF News

FORMER National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mark Jacob, has alleged that the Kaduna State chairman of the party, Ya'u Usman, has expressed open bias for the candidature of Governor Patrick Yakowa, towards the conduct of the gubernatorial primaries in the state.

Jacob, who is the Campaign Director-General of Alhaji Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, a PDP governorship aspirant, said a recent comment by Usman in support of Yakowa was an open demonstration of partisanship.

He was reacting to a statement credited to Usman to the effect that the Kaduna PDP leaders were planning to meet with all the three governorship aspirants in the party to discuss how others would step down for Governor Yakowa at the party's primaries.

Jacob said: 'The chairman has presumed the position of the party. The statement of the chairman implies that he is no longer the father of all aspirants, meaning that he is no longer an unbiased umpire. It means the PDP chairman has adopted a candidate from among the aspirants, and this is an insult to the aspirants.'

Though, Jacob agreed that there was need for a meeting of aspirants before the primaries, he said such a meeting should not be called with its position already taken by the party's chairman.

He stressed: 'The PDP in the state does not have the capacity to frustrate us; we rather have the capacity to frustrate them if there is any attempt to frustrate us. We shall make sure we oppose any attempt to disregard the position of the National Chairman who has on several occasions given standing rule that no party or state chairman shall adopt an aspirant.'

'The Hunkuyi Campaign Organisation shall test the sincerity of the state executive, whether they are qualified to hold that position. We will make sure the right thing is done. We shall not allow any irregularities from the party's executives.'