By Luka Binniyat
ABUJA — The already tensed political atmosphere in Taraba State is charged again, with the former Executive Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Alhaji Mohammed Tumba Ibrahim, declaring his intention to challenge the incumbent Governor Danbaba Suntai for the party’s ticket in the 2011 governorship election.

Ibrahim, who made the declaration shortly after obtaining the governorship form at the PDP national secretariat, in Abuja, said he decided to contest the governorship after due consultations with his supporters and major stakeholders in the state “on the need to rescue the state from the inept leadership of Governor Suntai.”

He said one of the key objectives of his aspiration was to uplift the living standards of Taraba people who, he said, “are wallowing in abject poverty, due to the failure of leadership that characterised the tenure of Governor Suntai.”

He pledged to, if elected, harness the natural resources of the state for the betterment of the people, adding that “Taraba is one of the under_developed states in this country, partly because the people at the helm of the affairs have woefully failed to execute any meaningful developmental projects for the benefits of the people.”

With his declaration, Ibrahim will be the only person to slug it out with the incumbent governor during the party’s primaries scheduled for January, next year.

A chartered accountant by profession, the former NPA director contested the governorship of the state in 2007 elections, where he came third among the eight persons that contested during the party’s primaries, with Danladi Baido emerging as winner and Senator Abdulazeez Ibrahim as runner-up.

While Baido was indicted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Senator Ibrahim decamped to ANPP and became its flagbearer, leaving the stage for M.T. Ibrahim to become PDP’s flag bearer, before the ticket was given to the then Secretary to State Government, Danbaba Suntai, who was not in the race at all.