Former Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has threatened to take legal action after being denied access to purchase the nomination form to contest for the position of National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Lamido visited the PDP National Headquarters in Abuja on Monday but said the office of the national organising secretary where forms are sold and was locked. According to him, both the national organising secretary and the party’s secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, claimed they did not know where the forms were.
He later learned that the forms were being handled by Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa, who chairs the party’s national convention organising committee. “So, for me to buy the form, I have to go to Adamawa? If I don’t get the form, I’ll go to court. Simple,” Lamido said.
Lamido condemned what he described as “secrecy and sidelining” within the PDP, warning that internal democracy was being eroded. He dismissed reports that some governors had rejected his ambition over alleged ties to another party, saying, “They met me in the PDP, all of them.”
The former governor had earlier announced on Facebook his intention to buy the form ahead of the PDP’s elective national convention, scheduled for November 15–16 in Ibadan.
The convention has been clouded by controversy following the endorsement of former minister Kabiru Turaki as the consensus candidate for national chairman by some northern PDP leaders, a decision rejected by several North-West stakeholders.
A court hearing on a suit seeking to halt the convention is set for October 31.
