It’s Painful I Took PDP To Court — Lamido

A former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, has said that it was painful having to drag the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before the court, but that he couldn’t help it.

Lamido had, shortly before the November 15-16 PDP national convention, got a court judgment stopping the convention.

The judgment was based on a suit filed by the former Jigawa State Governor against the party for denying him the PDP chairmanship nomination form.

But the party went ahead with the convention in spite of the judgment, the outcome of which Lamido said was null and void.

“I went to court because I was denied the form to participate in the contest for National Chairman. There was no reason given. It was simply blocked,” he said.

Regretting the current leadership crisis in the PDP, Lamido said, “It’s a painful and unfortunate situation,” adding that he was forced to take a party that had given him so much leverage to court.

He blamed his exclusion from the chairmanship race on the PDP governors, saying they imposed another person on the party as national chairman.

The PDP had elected Mr Kabiru Turaki, SAN, as national chairman at the convention, which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) boycotted.

On why the governors blocked him, Lamido said they feared his independent-mindedness, stressing they would not be able to control him if he were elected chairman.

The former governor specifically named the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, as the arrowhead of the governors’ plot to stop his chairmanship aspiration.

According to him, Governor Mohammed, who is the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, begged him to step down from the race.

He said, “Bala Mohammed personally called me and said, ‘My senior brother, you are too strong for us. If you become the national chairman, we cannot own and control you. I reminded him that when the PDP was formed in 1999, he was not even around. Many of us laboured to build this party from the ground up.”

He narrated his ordeal at the PDP secretariat on the day he went there to obtain the nomination form.

“We went there and found the office locked. There was no means to obtain the form. So that was why I went to court to seek redress.

“I am seriously worried and disturbed that I had to take my own party to court. This is a party that has given me opportunities, and I have served it with loyalty. But the injustice was too much to overlook,” he said.