A former governor of Benue state, Senator Gabriel Suswam has said he is in the race for the National Chairmanship of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in response to the need for the resuscitation of the party and to have a substantive Chairman.
Suswam who stated this at an interactive session with select journalists in Abuja at the weekend promised the reconcile aggrieved members of the PDP if elected as the national chairman of the party.
The former Benue North-east Senator said he has the capacity to turn the fortunes of the party around and called on all stakeholders and party members to give the opportunity to bring PDP back to its past glory.
He lamented that since the removal of the former national chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP has not lived up to expectations, saying it was time to resuscitate the party and only someone with his kind of pedigree can do the job needed now.
The former House of Representatives member said based on the constitution of the party and precedence, it was the turn of someone from the North-central to replace Ayu.
“Ayu, as you know, was uncermoniously removed from office through a court case that was initiated from his home state, Benue. And by the constitution of our party, once the chairman or any other national officer is removed, his deputy will act pending when the zone that produced incumbent officer produces his replacement.
“Ayu was removed has been for about a year now and that has not happened because the party has not been able to put itself together.
Issues that were outstanding have not been addressed; so every person seems to be doing whatever he or she likes.
“But after almost a year, there is this general feeling that the party is too despondent and there should be some resuscitation of the party and let us have a substantive chairman and that is why I declared my interest to replace Ayu.
“We at the party level believe that based on antecedents, the North-central should produce the replacement for Ayu. It is clearly stated in the party’s constitution in Article 47 (6).
“It clearly states that once a national officer of the party is unable to act for whatever reason, the zone that he comes from should produce his replacement to complete his tenure. I don’t see any reason we would not do that because we are not devoid of people with capacity. The region has a lot of prominent persons.
“For me, I am not insisting that it must be me but if it’s me, it would be better for the party; but the North-central should not be shortchanged.
“When Bamaga Tukur was removed, Mua’zu was brought in from the North-east, after Mua’zu, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff came in. So, there is a precedent for that and I don’t see any reason this should be an exception.
“When Solomon Lar’s first tenure expired, it was moved to Barnabas Gemade to complete the second tenure; of course, when Gemade was removed, Audu Ogbe completed the tenure of Gemade. There is a precedent for this and there is nothing unusual that we’re demanding from the North-central,” he added.
