PDP convention: Turaki submits chairmanship nomination form

From: Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

Former Minister of Special Duties Tanimu Turaki, on Monday submitted his nomination form for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairmanship contest, ahead of the party’s national convention.

A member of the PDP in Kaduna State, Umar Sani, while addressing journalists at the Legacy House, Abuja, on behalf of the former minister’s team, said Turaki will ensure reconciliation in the party if elected as national chairman.

Turaki was adopted last week by PDP stakeholders in the North, including Governors Bala Mohammed, Ahmadu Fintiri, and Dauda Lawal of Bauchi, Adamawa, and Zamfara states, respectively, as their consensus candidate for the chairmanship position.

Sani, while responding to a question on whether the former minister was afraid of a contest, said the latter is not afraid of anyone, noting that he has remained steadfast in his loyalty to the opposition party.

According to him: “Kabiru Tanimu Turaki is not afraid of anybody. He has not changed from the PDP. He knows the internal workings of the PDP. So, for anybody to believe that he is afraid of anybody, he is not afraid of anybody.

“Secondly, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki has been in this party for a very long time. He has never aspired to become a House of Reps member, a Senator, a Governor, only that he aspired to become President. And even the aspiration to become President, when he was defeated at the primaries in Port Harcourt, he became the Director of Administration and Finance of the Presidential Campaign Council, where I was a Presidential Campaign Council Spokesperson.”

He added: “Now, if he is vested with the powers to continue to run the affairs of the party, he will put the party on a sound footing because he is neutral. He is neither with Wike nor the Governors’ Forum.

“He is an independent-minded person, and we hope that he will bring his wealth of experience, which he has gathered over the years, both as a legal practitioner, as a former Minister of Special Duties, because as a Special Duties Minister, you have to specialise in everything.

“Kabiru Tanimu Turaki is not a troublemaker. He likes peace all the time. And he has always considered Sule Lamido as his senior brother and he calls him as such.

“So, they don’t have any problem. This is a party matter, not an individual quarrel between Kabiru Tanimu Turaki and Sule Lamido. There is no quarrel at all.”