First Executive Governor of old Kaduna State and Chairman Board of Trustees of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Alhaji AbdulKadir Balarabe Musa have cautioned the party over the coming of the immediate past INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega into PRP.
Jega, who joined PRP recently, was the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2014 when PRP was deregistered by the Commission.
Speaking on Monday when Senator Shehu Sani paid a Sallah homage at his residence in Kaduna, Balarabe Musa who was former national chairman and presidential candidate of PRP, stated that INEC under Jega refused to recognise the party despite being reinstated by the court of law.
According to him, “when three month ago the party chairman, Alhaji Falalu Bello told me Jega was showing interest in joining the party, my reaction then was that he is welcome. We have opened up the party for everybody to join.
“Then about one or two weeks ago, I learnt from the media that Jega has actually joined the PRP, I welcomed him and feel that he could be very useful for PRP. But we have to exercise care and caution, because who is Jega?
“Jega was chairman of INEC and under his chairmanship, PRP was deregistered and it was a struggle for us. We went to the court, the court reinstated us and we still had problem of exercising our fundamental right in spite of court decision. We even obtained favourable judgment to prosecute INEC chairman for contempt of court and the INEC still refused to give us recognition.
“Now the same person who deregistered us is now coming back to PRP. We can’t reject him because we have opened up and the party is a public property. Because he has shown interest he is welcome to the party. But as I said we have to exercise care and caution,” he said.
Speaking on whether Jega, who has emerged as the chairman of PRP SWOT Committee was sent to the party to hijack it and make it a third force ahead of 2023 general elections, Balarabe Musa said as the chairman of BOT of the party, “if I feel he is in the party with any ulterior motive I would not tell the media, I would tell the relevant leaders of the party who will now tell you what they thought about it.
“I’m responsible for the ideology of the party. Constitutionally, I still have responsibility to protect the interest of the party. I can only discuss with the national executive committee members of the party after we have discussed the problem then u can know but I cannot preempt the decision of the party despite being the BOT chairman.”
