Plateau PDP Executive Sacks Chairman – Damishi Sango
BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – The State Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Plateau State on Wednesday wielded the big hammer by sacking its Chairman, Mr. Damishi Sango, who it accused of highhandedness in the running of party affairs, lack of accountability and transparency in the financial dealings, and sundry official misdemeanors in the party.
The decision which happened for the first time after its disputed loss of the March2019 gubernatorial election also saw the State Executive announcing the sack of the Deputy Chairman, Mr. Amos Gombi Gogol on reasons of accessory and complicity.
The Executive Committee members explained that the development is in “a bid to save the party” from being run aground.
In a correspondence dubbed “Resolutions of the Plateau State Peoples Democratic Party Executive”, and dated April 24, 2019, the Executive Committee members declared; “A vote of no confidence has been passed on the party chairman, Hon Damishi T Sango, and his deputy, Hon Amos Gombi Goyol”.
Sequel to the development, the party announced the appointment of Hon Chris Hassan, who was until now the State Vice Chairman, Northern zone, as the Acting State Chairman.
The party further said that; “This is in recourse to the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party.”
The party also announced the dissolution and disbandment of the PDP gubernatorial campaign organization with immediate effect.
Among the charges brought against Sango and his deputy, the party noted include; “the resources sent to the state for the last presidential election have not been accounted for by the chairman, aided by his deputy.
“The moneys raised and saved by the Party to assist internally displaced persons (IDPs), have also not been accounted for up to this moment, and it is worthy of note that the deputy chairman is the Committee Chairman on IDPs for the Party.”
According to the Resolutions, the Party also noted that “the money meant for PDP Plateau State Retreat has also not been accounted for by the chairman and his deputy.
“Worse of all, Party ethos have collapsed completely because of the overbearing indulgences and highhandedness of the Sango/Gombi leadership.” This situation, according to party sources, left the Party morally distraught, with confusion, disrespect for elders and members of the SEC, whose advice, opinions, and suggestions were habitually disregarded by the suspended chairman and his deputy, and never taken into consideration.
Sango, according to the report, is also being held responsible for the party’s loss in the Wase Federal Constituency election of last February, for singlehandedly substituting the rightful candidate for an unpopular one in circumstances that were as questionable as they were doubtful of transparency and integrity.
Speaking in respect of the putsch endorsed by eighteen (18) of the 21-man State Executive, Chris Hassan, who emerged as the acting State Chairman, said the reign of Sango brought the Party under very difficult times to a point where the continuity and survival of the party became doubtful. Hassan said the strangle hold of Sango had become so acute and frustrating that the party barely managed the stench of its dirty linen into the last general elections.
According to him, “This day has been over due in coming, because party members and followers have for long been disinterested and exasperated.”
According to the Acting Chairman who has solicited the understanding and cooperation of all to take the party to greater heights, the task before him is enormous, as he has to begin the process of repositioning the party and entrench a new culture of transparency and inclusiveness, and ensure that the traditions of popular will and party supremacy are the guide and template of the party’s engagements and proceedings.
Hassan appealed for calm, saying this is necessary given the celebration and relief with which the party rungs have received the news of the leadership change, and the reception and attention party emissaries to the national secretariat were received today by the national leadership at Wadata Plaza, Abuja.
Sango’s tenure as the state chairman of the PDP became dogged and controversial especially after his kidnap and release after payment of some ransom last year along Kaduna-Abuja Road early last year. Yet, his reign and tenure became even more scrutinised and dogged in the build up to this year’s general elections when a commercial quantity of gubernatorial and other aspirants showed on the State PDP’s platform, and political analysts said it bore a huge potential for party executives to exhibit tendencies.
Matters came to a head with the Sango political and party personage becoming multiple and capricious when he failed to convene Exco or SEC meeting after the gubernatorial primary of the Party, and, in a foggy and bewildering succession of events, and obscure candidate emerged as gubernatorial running mate to the main candidate, J T Useni.
With a background in the APC having contested on its platform and lost in the 2015 general elections, Amos Gombi Goyol, has hardly been trusted since he jumped ship and emerged later as the state deputy Chairman of the PDP.
His fate may have been compounded by allegations of aiding the APC to do in the PDP candidate in the Pankshin/Kanke/Kanam Federal constituency in last February’s National Assembly election.
