Adamawa guber: Marwa, Ardo spat over PDP waiver

From Umar Dankano, Yola

Former Lagos state military administrator, Gen. Buba Marwa and a political activist in the state, Dr. Umar Ardo, have been trading words over waiver for new entrants into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

While Marwa had expressed the optimism that decampees into the party would be given waivers to contest the Adamawa governorship bye election, Ardo insisted that nothing of such would happen.

Ardo in a press statement made available to reporters in Yola had disputed the claims Marwa allegedly made to some of his supporters in Mubi that he had a waiver from the PDP to contest the governorship election in the state.

He said “I am sure he is economical with the truth. Section 50 (10b) of the PDP Constitution is clear as to how waiver is obtained. The process starts from the ward level, through the local government to the state, to the zonal, to the NWC and finally must be approved by the NEC. The constitution is also clear that even the NEC lacks the power to grant waiver unless the process of clearance of the waiver starts from the ward levels”.

“Marwa claims that I was ignorant of his waiver as I did not verify from the party executives. But he is wrong, because I verified the facts before making my assertion. Marwa hails from Michika 2 Ward of Michika Local Govt. I have spoken to Mr. Adamu Iliya, the Chairman of Michika 2 Ward and he stated that Marwa never applied to the ward for waiver and therefore was never recommended and that he had never even seen Marwa in person since the latter’s purported return to the party,” he said.

Ardo said that he equally inquired from the PDP State Chairman on the issue and he denied any knowledge of such request coming from the local government chapter saying that the only thing he was aware of was that Marwa applied to meet with party executives in the state and he approved it.

‘’I have also inquired from three members of the NWC and they all denied ever treating this issue in any of their meetings. Besides, I saw the agenda of the last NEC meeting and the issue of Marwa’s waiver was not there.

‘’So, where and how did Marwa get the waiver he is laying claims to? The truth is that Marwa has no waiver and his claim to having one is false. While I call on Marwa to both regularize his waiver process and acquaint himself with the party leadership in his ward, I take this opportunity to call on all PDP executives and members in the state to be wary of claims from desperate politicians as we approach the party primaries’’ he alerted.