LG Polls: Taraba PDP leaders in word fight over choice of candidate

On Thursday, there was some light drama in Jalingo, the capital of Taraba State, when locals from Donga Local Government Council decided to throw caution to the wind and start fighting with each other.

During a meeting in the State Government House’s Executive Chambers, members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were unable to agree on a single candidate to represent the party in the upcoming local government elections.

The media noted a shift away from the traditional method of selecting candidates through a party’s primary and toward a system in which councils were charged with coming up with consensus candidates.

It was speculated that the free-for-all fights that resulted in the former Majority Leader of the State House of Assembly, Captain (Rtd) Douglas Neatse, descending on some persons from the council who opposed his choice of candidate originated in the Donga stakeholders’ inability to agree on a candidate to fly the party’s banner in the upcoming council election.

The former assembly leader was accused of trying to force an unpopular candidate on the people of the council by getting into a physical altercation with certain PDP stakeholders from the council.

After the event, the alleged victim of the former majority leader’s slap told reporters that things got heated when key PDP members in the local government decided to uphold the party’s zoning scheme, which has been in place since 1999.

Garalie Suntai, a former councillor and stakeholder, said that the former majority leader had argued that the decision made by the stakeholders would not be implemented because of the PDP’s political zoning system in the council.

Irked by the alleged misdemeanour of the former assembly member, he added, “It is unfortunate that Ndatse, who is a product of PDP zoning arrangements in Donga council, has chosen to oppose the idea that has kept PDP in Donga under one umbrella.”

It’s because 99 percent of us have consented to consider the typical zoning structure that PDP has been employing in the local government, which has kept the people politically at peace, that he’s battling us openly, I might add.

The former Assembly member, according to Suntai, “is opposing the decision that can best be described as a unanimous decision,” stating that he is “insisting on ideas that would not only consume PDP in the local government but also capable of bringing disunity among the various ethnic groups in the area.

A second council stakeholder, who also requested anonymity like Suntai, expressed disappointment that the state governor, Agbu Kefas, was allegedly unable to allow candidates for the positions of council chairmen and councillors to emerge through a primary election.

He criticized his boss’s plan to have candidates agree on a slate, saying, “His decision for the candidates to arrive via consensus would be inimical to the growth of our great party and could as well cause more crises across the sixteen local government councils.”

Our reporter’s attempts to contact the former majority leader who was rumored to be at the center of the dispute were fruitless; he did not answer his phone or respond to an SMS.