A socio-political group, the Northern Youth Forum, has called on the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to sack Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State ahead of the 2015 election for “attacking” President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Jigawa chapter of the group faulted the governor over his recent comments criticising the Northwest zone of the PDP for endorsing Jonathan for a second term.
It would be recalled that the Northwest zone of the party had held a meeting in Kaduna Saturday after which it issued a communique endorsing Jonathan as its flag bearer for the 2015 presidential poll.
But speaking through his deputy, Alhaji Ahmed Mahmoud, Monday, in Dutse, Lamido, who is reportedly eyeing the PDP presidential ticket, said the endorsement is “undemocratic and totally wrong”.
According to the governor, Jigawa State did not benefit from its endorsement of Mr. Jonathan ahead of the 2011 election despite the backlash it faced from the entire northern region.
“The endorsement of Jonathan as the party’s presidential flag bearer is wrong and we hereby disassociate the government, and the people of the state from such undemocratic act”, he said.
“We, in Jigawa, were not part of the decision taken by the PDP to endorse President Jonathan as its presidential flag bearer in 2015, and this has clearly embarrassed us as PDP members as well as people of the state”, Mr. Mahmoud added.
However, in a statement Friday, signed by its spokesperson, Sani Auyo, the Northern Youth Forum, Jigawa chapter, said it was disturbed by the “ranting of Sule Lamido which has no value, character and it is rather indicating that the governor has no respect for leaders”.
“Our attention has been drawn to the recent unguarded utterances of Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, which is designed to score cheap publicity, but the governor is well known for his political antics of open disobedience to his political mentors like Aminu Kano, Rimi etc”, it said.
The group said Mr. Lamido was becoming “uncomfortable” with the growing number of Nigerians asking Mr. Jonathan to contest in 2015.
“Whether the governor is driven by envy or for cheap publicity, we are calling on Nigerians to ignore the ranting of Lamido and maintain their support and solidarity to the Transformation Agenda”, the group said.
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