BY HENRY UMORU
ABUJA—AHEAD of the December 17 primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Sokoto State, there are strong indications that it would be very difficult for Governor Aliyu Wamakko to clinch the party’s ticket following stiff opposition against him.

The move to stop Wamakko from actualising his second term bid is from PDP itself, as notable members are plotting for his disqualification from contesting the primaries.

The major complaint, is the  alleged marginalisation of “Old PDP” members in the state from the scheme of things by the governor.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, yesterday, the state Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Abubakar Babangida, explained that a petition had been sent to the PDP national headquarters by some of the stakeholders, adding however, that Wamakko had hijacked and bastardised PDP in the state.

According to Babangida, Wamakko also allegedly refused to implement an agreement reached between him and the old members before his defection from his former party, All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, to PDP.”

Wammako, who was the ANPP gubernatorial candidate in the build-up to the 2007 gubernatorial election in the state,  defected to PDP,  where he was handed over its ticket after reaching agreements with the party’s national leadership.

The Publicity Secretary alleged that in the agreement, Wammako promised to share political offices at 50-50 ratio between his supporters from ANPP with him and the old members of PDP, but reneged after winning the main election, as he conceded only four slots of the 16 commissioners.

five out of the 18 local government chairmanship seats and 10 out of the 30 state House of Assembly seats in the state, apart from taking over the entire party machinery in the state.

Babangida also noted that Wamakko had, after sacking the initial leaders of the party further handed over the party structure to his ANPP loyalists, and further stopped convening meetings of the party’s executive either at the state or zonal levels.

’’All the major stakeholders and elders of the party, including a former minister, Ahmed Mohammed Gusau, incumbent Minister, Yusuf Suleiman and Ambassador Abdullahi Shuni, who are key leaders in the old PDP were marginalised and disenfranchised from the party’s affairs.

“In the history of Sokoto state, the present administration is considered as the most wasteful in terms of state resources, most fraudulent in terms of abandoned and non-existent projects which were however, mostly fully paid for and the most violent in terms of using unemployed youths to perpetuate arson and thuggery,” he added.