By G9ija
The Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has said that the presidential candidate of the party, Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, does not want him re-elected for contesting the party’s presidential ticket with hi,
The Eagle Online recalls that Mohammed was one of the aspirants Abubakar defeated in the PDP presidential primaries.
On Tuesday, the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory accused the former Vice President of attempt to frustrate his re-election for running against him for the PDP presidential ticket.
He made the allegation in a letter addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP, Senator Iyorcha Ayu.
He accused Abubakar of “treachery targeted at my person and office, undoubtedly endorsed, directly or indirectly, by the presidential candidate of our party, His Excellency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON, Wazirin Adamawa.
“In this game of political mischief, he is in league with some political stakeholders from Bauchi State, who have constituted themselves into a ‘Bala Must Go’ conspiracy.
“While Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his political cohorts insist that I must be ‘punished’, for contesting against him during the presidential primary of our party, the self-acclaimed ‘kingmakers’, around the Wazirin Adamawa want a pound of flesh from me because I have refused to capitulate to their unbridled sense of entitlement, which is pregnant with selfishness and dictatorial tendencies.
“The lust group of the ‘Bala Must Go’ campaigners are those whose ego has been bruised by my continued political relevance, rising national profile and the groundswell of public acclamation that has trailed unprecedented developmental strides of the PDP led Administration in the state.”
Mohammed said rather than abate after his complained to Abubakar and his running mate and Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, “the mischief and treachery have escalated, under the watchful eyes and knowledge of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who, to all intents and purposes, is the leader of the groups.
“The footprints of this undeserved hostility, bordering on anti-party activities, litter the political terrain, but will mention just a few here.”
He added that Abubakar has snubbed his since the conclusion of the primaries as he had visited others who ran against him and despite the fact that he congratulated him on his emergence as the party’s presidential flag bearer.
He said: “Worse still, the fact that I swallowed my pride and led a delegation of my associates and major stakeholders of my state on a solidarity visit to his Asokoro residence in Abuja, to pledge my loyalty and support, was not enough for him to reciprocate my gesture of goodwill.
“Instead, he took advantage of the occasion to express his displeasure with me and to hint (FOREWARN ME) that for the purpose of his 2023 presidential campaign in Bauchi State, he would rely on his aforementioned associates, many of whom have turned out to be my traducers.
“Despite my purported appointment as Vice Chairman of the Presidential Campaign Council PCC, which unlike others, I accepted, in good faith. I was excluded from the activities of the PCC as it relates to my office.
“I was deliberately sidelined from the reach-out campaign of the PCC in Kaduna which interacted with major stakeholder groups and the Northern political establishment such as the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Sardauna Foundation, Arewa Research and Development Project, etc.
“Open fraternisation with ‘Bala Must Go’ exponents, most of them from the opposition, without detoxifying them of their virulent and destructive animosity towards me and the PDP-led Administration in the state.
“Undisguised efforts to sabotage my re-election and impose on the state a governor from another party who is ready to satisfy their selfish interests to the detriment of the larger interest of the people of the state.
“And to expect that I will remain frozen to the spot where I am being politically guillotined, will be the heigh of delusion: only a tree would be so dumb and indifferent. If all that I can get for my loyalty to the party is the current betrayal by an arrogant and defiant group, then I should be free to take my salvation in my own hands.
“So long as my crime is that I pursued my presidential ambition to a logical conclusion despite all the intimidation and that I have put the interest of the people who elected us, and to whom we remain accountable, above some special interests. I have no regrets or apology.”
Making a demand to end the frosty relationship between him and Abubakar, Mohammed said he should “should issue a public statement disowning those renegade elements who are neck-deep in the anti party plot of subverting my re-election effort and to admonish members of our party to reject the devious overtures and manipulative strategies of my detractors,” adding that failure to do that within a reasonable time frame, coupled with explicit guarantees of sincerity of purpose and public support for “my re-election by the presidential candidate, I may withdraw from the PCC and feel free to create new measures and strategies that will guarantee the election or re-election of all PDP candidates in Bauchi State and myself.”