Why I Should Substantive PDP Chairman – Taraba PDP Acting Chairman, Bakari

The acting Chairman of the Taraba State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Inuwa Bakari, has faulted Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku's sole decision to remove him as party chairman and install his political adviser  Alhaji Abubakar Bawa.

Bawa, who was the former Special Adviser to Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku on Political Matters, was recently announced as the party's state chairman by the outgoing governor but a Federal High Court in Jalingo reversed the decision.

Bakari, who could not fathom why he could not be made the substantive chairman of the party after being in an acting capacity, said he decided to approach the court to seek justice. 

He said, "I challenged my removal because there is no justification by any reason for somebody who actually managed the office and won governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly elections to be said to be incompetent."

Stressing that "I am from Karim 1 constituency", the aggrieved Bakari said he does not see why someone from outside the party was appointed to take over the leadership.

Arguing that by the constitution, positions in the party "are elective not appointive," he opined that "it is clear that once the Chairman is not there the deputy automatically takes over pending when elections are held".

He said, "I was called by the Governor who told me that one Abubakar Bawa was appointed as the Chairman of the party; my thinking is that for the sake of democracy and justice and for the sake of those coming behind, there shouldn't be any illegality if it comes to the issues of elective positions that's why I went to court.

"I challenged it based on the fact that it is democracy, to protect democracy and justice, there is injustice there".

He also faulted the reasons proffered by those behind his removal, stating that "their basis of argument was that the central Zone lacks representation at the State level which I disagreed with".

He said the Central Zone of the state has one of the largest shares of the leadership of the party, adding that "the National Vice Chairman of Zone E comprising six States Emmanuel Bovowa comes from Sardauna in the Central Zone, the Central Zone also has the State Secretary Kuriya Tafarki from Kurmi the State Women's leader is also from Sardauna in the Central Zone and the Zonal Chairman from Gassol."

He lamented Ishaku's decision to appoint someone from Sardauna to be acting Chairman, saying the secretary and chairman cannot come from the same zone.

"All these are some of the things I feel should be looked into, maybe they just want to score cheap marks feeling that because they are in power they can do and undo which I feel should not be allowed," he said.