Plateau PDP chairman suspended as crisis deepens

From Ado Abubakar Musa, Jos

The crisis rocking the Plateau state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took another dimension yesterday, when the state Executive Committee (Exco) of the party announced the suspension of its Chairman, Mr. Haruna Dabin.

Dabin’s suspension, contained in a communiqué released after the meeting of the party’s state Exco, was the climax of the crises in the party since the state PDP chairman indicated his interest to contest the state governorship seat in 2015.

It was learnt that the party’s leadership was uncomfortable with Dabin’s governorship ambition without first relinquishing his chairmanship position to allow for equity in the race for the party’s ticket at the primary ahead of 2015.

Reading the communiqué on behalf of the executive, chairman of Mangu local government area, Hon. Caleb Mutfang said the Secretary of the party, Raymond Dabo, has been mandated to take over the affairs of the state party, pending the outcome of the findings of the disciplinary committee.

He said the executive council was constrained to suspend the chairman pending the full investigation by the party’s disciplinary committee within two weeks, with effect from today (yesterday).

He stated that the council has discovered that the suspended party chairman, Haruna Dabin, had deliberately refused to call for meetings of various organs of the party for a long period of time.

The communiqué also had it that his suspension was consequent upon his failure to render account to the party; and given the convincing indication that the chairman instigated some members of the party to institute a law suit against the party in the state.

The meeting, presided over by the deputy governor of the state, Amb. Ignatius Longjan, said the council still believe that the PDP remains the party of the great people of the state and welcomes anybody that wants to join.

He said the party frowned at the tendency of some members to rush to court without exhausting the mechanism provided for in the party’s constitution for settling internal disputes.

The communiqué therefore warned members that henceforth, the party will not hesitate to take disciplinary measures against anybody that violated the party’s constitution.

It was learnt that crisis begun in the party since the party’s chairman indicated interest in contesting the state governorship election in 2015. Some other Exco members who felt uncomfortable with the declaration had called on the chairman to resign his position to allow for equity.

But Dabin had earlier described the meeting as illegal saying he was not aware of and did not call for it.

“An illegal meeting can only produce illegal results,” the embattled chairman said of the meeting, which he said was called by the state party Secretary, Pam Saleh.

Meanwhile, the Police had earlier yesterday morning sealed the party’s secretariat in Jos, ostensibly to stop the chairman from holding a meeting with some stakeholders, which he had called for 10am in the morning.

Apart from the Chairman’s declaration for the governorship seat of the state in 2015, it was learnt that the move by the former governor of the state, Joshua Dariye, who is now a Senator, to dump his Labour Party (LP) to join the PDP has continued to cause ripples in the party.

Also, it was gathered that the former Minister of State for Science and Technology and later a Deputy Governor of Plateau state, Pauline Tallen, who was also the governorship aspirant on the platform of the Labour Party (LP), has also indicated interest in returning to the party. But this too has continued to rattle some feathers among the PDP stakeholders in Plateau.