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Blame neither Atiku nor Wike, Damagun, Bala cause of PDP crisis – Suswam
Gabriel Suswam, former Governor of Benue State, has argued that those blaming Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the party and Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for the deepening crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are wrong.
Rather he wants them to channel such blames to Umar Damagun, Acting National Chairman of the party and Bala Muhammed, Governor of Bauchi State, who is the current Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum (PGF), whom he said were the ones stalling the full recovery of the party for their lack of leadership.
The former governor in two appearances at The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS, television network and Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television within the week, said without the insincerity of the two, neither Atiku nor Wike would have the ground to hold the party to ransom.
Hear him: “At my age and my stage, I won’t run away from such issues. PDP Acting National Chairman is one of those people. The PDP Governors Forum Chairman is one of the problems, because they have not been straight with us. So, I’m not shying away from that. I’m a member of PDP. I’ve sponsored PDP. I’ve been in this party since 1998 and have participated in its activities. I have contested seven elections under PDP, I won five and I lost two.
“So, there’s no way I’m going to shy away from what is happening. Damagun is the greatest problem we have in the party. But the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum should have guided him. He’s not doing his job. And that is why we’re here. As far as PDP is concerned, Bala Muhammed is the President, because governors are the one who are sponsoring the party now.
“They’re providing the money for the running of the party and Bala is the leader of that group. So, he is the leader of the party, so to speak. So, if he is not guiding the National Working Committee, then the buck stops on his table, then he’s one of the biggest problems that we have. It is not Atiku, it is not Wike. If Bala and Damagun have done what they should do, there’s no way that we’ll be have this type of shenanigans in the party.”
Suswam likened the PDP to a patient in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that could either survive or die on a 50-50 chance, lamenting how a simple failure to show direction, unity, or honour in resolving internal conflicts, had cost the party greatly.
He particularly referred to the handling of issues related to Wike and the crisis in Rivers State, saying failure of the leaders to adhere to the agreement they reached with the FCT Minister on the matter which included the recognition of Samuel Anyanwu as National Secretary and the withdrawal of all court actions connected to state did not show honour on their part.
“I keep emphasising this without sounding like a broken record. I talked about leadership. Even at the family level, if we don’t have good leadership, that family is doomed. What has happened to PDP basically is that of leadership, lack of capacity on the part of the leadership of the party. They have had secret meetings. The FCT minister mentioned it. He said there was a meeting in Lagos, he was invited. They had an agreement in Lagos. There was another meeting in Abuja, in the house of a former Senate President, where those agreements were consolidated.
“If you are sincere to the people – and when we were called, former governors and current governors, about two weeks ago to a meeting, none of this was before us. Nobody knew that there were secret meetings where agreement was reached with the FCT minister. If you engage somebody in an agreement, you invite somebody and you engage him, it is only honourable that you honour the agreement. If you are not interested, why do that in the first place?
“So, I don’t blame the FCT Minister for what he’s saying. It’s dishonourable for me to call you and agree on something with you at my level, and then I reneged without reference to you. So I don’t blame him. It is the lack of capacity of the leadership. And the leadership has not been straight with party followers.”
Suswam, who particularly took issue with how the agreement ignored the decision of the South East PDP, which had already nominated a replacement National Secretary and communicated it to the party’s national secretariat, argued that such disregard revealed the extent to which the zone is being sidelined in party affairs.
“The South East as a bloc have met a couple of times, have decided that they want a new secretary of the party, have even nominated that person, have forwarded a letter to the headquarters of PDP.
“That is as a bloc. So if I’m going to engage in an agreement that would deviate from what the Southeast have done, they would have been involved. Or some of the stakeholders there would have been involved. I don’t think they were involved for them to take that decision because quite frankly, it’s confusing to me.”
Stressing that the pattern of exclusion and backroom dealings had not only fractured the party internally but also damaged public trust in its ability to serve as a credible opposition ahead of the 2027 elections, the former governor, also called out Umar Damagun, the PDP Acting National Chairman, accusing him of lack of sincerity.
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
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