By our correspondent
Former Benue State Governor and Senator Gabriel Suswam has said that he is fully in the race for the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
This is even as he insisted that he won’t allow anyone parading as leader of the party in the State to disintegrate the party.
The erstwhile Governor who stated this at a stakeholders meeting he convened in Makurdi on Thursday, intimated that the position of National Chairman has been zoned to the North Central and he is vying for it and sued for their prayers.
According to him, the race to replace the former Chairman Iyorchia Ayu is not a contest that requires campaigns, pointing out that it is an in-house thing which will be done by the National Executive Committee, NEC (which he is a member of) and the Board of Trustee, BOT.
“It is not something to make so much noise about. When the replacement will be made by the NEC and BOT, I will be there while those making noise will not. All I need is your prayers to clinch the seat”, he said.
Sen Suswam also fumed at the manner the last ward congresses of the party were conducted, describing it as,’the height of rascality’, which will not be condoned.
Said he, “they tried to manipulate and hijack the ward congresses that were held on July 27, 2024 but they failed. Congresses were held in 15 LGAs, 6 are in dispute in court. The ward congresses in 15, we will ensure it stands. The ward executives elected will stand.
“It was indeed the height of rascality. When you do this, you cannot win election. We must put our party together for election. They want to hoodwink us, a particular person wants to take at the ward and the entire state. This is arrant nonsense. We lost election in 2023 because of this act. This was the first time the party lost an election comprehensively.
“You must Stand firm and do not allow them have their way. What they are experiencing is short victory. You cannot put anything on nothing. The ward congress that was genuinely conducted in 15 LGAs will stand. We will stand with PDP, we cannot campaign for other parties when election approaches. Do not be threatened PDP is intact and the right thing must be done”.
Responding to accusations that he evicted the party from the Secretariat because the property belonged to him, Suswam dismissed it as, ‘untrue’
Hear him, “it is true that the property is mine. I decided that the party should use it until it has it own but in their desperation they accused me of evicting them from the party secretariat. I was not even aware of this until the care taker Committee told me that the secretariat was not open. It was later learnt that some persons were not happy with the secretary of the committee and vowed that he will not enter there.
“Desperation has beclouded their sense of reasoning because they have a mindset which started since the day of Labor Party. We can’t allow some group of persons to disintegrate us. I have asked a lawyer to draft that the purported ward congresses must stand,it is a collective apprehension and agitation. Nobody has evicted anyone from the Secretariat anyone who wants to create faction in the party is on his own.
Also speaking at the occasion, the immediate past chairman of the PDP Sir John Ngbede outrightly blamed Sen David Mark and Sen Suswam for bringing the former Governor Samuel Ortom back to the party.
“Suswam you and Sen. David Mark caused our problem by bringing a man in 2019 to us. They gave me a list to post people for the congresses and I refused, did my posting and that was the beginning of the crisis. We must wrestle this party from the hands of this people who are negotiating with the opposition APC. They should leave us quietly. There was no LGA congresses in Benue State. The change the list even in my LGA of Agatu. We can hold a parallel Congress in the State. We give power and they use it against us”, Ngbede frowned.
