Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, succumbed to mounting pressure on Tuesday night and publicly acknowledged the leadership of Umar Damagum, the Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Previously, a faction of the party loyal to Mohammed had filed for a court injunction to prevent both the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission from canceling Thursday’s scheduled National Executive Council meeting.
The lawsuit, initiated by Imam Auwal at a Zamfara High Court in the Gusau Judicial Division, aimed to overturn an earlier injunction from an Abuja Federal High Court that barred the PDP from removing Damagum from his position.
However, on Tuesday, the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum endorsed Damagum’s leadership during a stakeholders meeting aimed at resolving tensions among the party’s National Working Committee leaders.
As of the time of this report, only five of the 13 governors were present, including Bala Mohammed, Ademola Adeleke of Osun, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara, Siminalaye Fubara of Rivers, and Caleb Muftwan of Plateau.
This development came just hours after the Reconciliation Committee, led by Olagunsoye Oyinlola and established to address the factionalism within the NWC, announced that it had successfully reconciled differences within the party, allowing it to move forward in its nation-building efforts.
During his opening remarks at the expanded meeting with the Board of Trustees and former governors late on Tuesday, Mohammed emphasized that their singular goal was to reconcile all differences.
He said, “This is a PDP meeting, not governors meeting. It is not a caucus meeting but a meeting of PDP stakeholders. It is a one-item agenda meeting. As you can see, we are all united today under the leadership of Umar Damagum, we are here to discuss germane issues.
“We will resist any attempt to make Nigeria a one-party state. We will use our experiences since 1999 to provide Nigerians with an alternative platform. “
