Uneasy calm has enveloped the plateau State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following divisions in the leadership of the party.
The cracks which became evident with the lifting of the state of emergency last month, has pitched the prominent former members who returned to the party last August and those in the party led by the current chairman, Chief Maichibi Vwarji.
Some top members of the PDP led by the chairman of its board of trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, in the company of the Senate President, Chief Adulphus Wabara, his deputy, Ibrahim Mantu and Secreary of the board, Professor Jerry Gana had met and persuaded the former leaders back to the party.
The top members include retired Air Commodore Jonah Jang, former Sports Minister, Damishi Sango, former Minister of State, Science and Technology, Mrs Pallen Tallen, Mr Philemon Dewan, Professor Dakum Shown, and Senator Y. Dan-gin, among several others, along with their supporters.
Daily Trust investigations into the cause of the apparent split showed that the returnee PDP members had not been intergrated into the party since their return middle of last August.
The two factions comprising the returnees and their supporters on one hand and the indigenous members on the other, fall neatly into the Mantu/Dariye chasm in the state.
Accusing the Vwarji-led leadership of the party of marginalisation, the returnees who are said to be strong me-mbers of the party by them-selves mobilised their supporters, and together with Mantu’s threatened to go their way and form a parallel executive to be led by a former state chairman of the party, Habu Shindai, who was allegedly tricked out of the position of chairman last year with a promise of commissionership but which never materialised.
The group through Damish Sango have plans to use the AD state secretariat on Yalintu Crown Road as their new PDP secretariat.
Disturbed by the development, the national secret-ariat of the party in Abuja despatched its deputy nati-onal chairman, North Central Zone to Jos to sort out the impasse after which he warned that the party would not condone a parallel executive in the state.
Elders of the party in the state have wielded into the matter to reconcile the two factions. One of their steps is inviting Senator Ibrahim Mantu to Jos for discus-sions. It could not be confirmed as a at press time whether Mantu will honour the invitation.
No party leader is willing to talk to the press on the issue in deference to the elders’ injunction to all party leaders and members of the two camps to desist from discussing the matter with the press.
An elder however, confirmed the ban on press statements saying, “the situation is bad enough. The division in the party is along the Dariye/Mantu face-off. So, we asked members of both factions to stay off the press for now while we work on the solution.
What he thought is the solution, the elder who refused to be mentioned in compliance with the non-press-interview order said “reconciliation. We must reconcile the two leaders for complete peace on the Plateau. Alli has done a wonderful job by making people to lay down their arms but he could not reconcile the political class.”
He continued, “you remember when Professor Dakun Shown granted your newspaper an interview he said that after the peace conference, there was the need for a political conference for politicians to iron out their differences and reconcile.”
However, further Daily Trust investigation showed that aside the allegation of marginalisation, the threat to recall Mantu from the Senate is also at the centre of the new split.
Party officials in Mangu local government, Mantu’s home, gave Daily Trust two reasons why they would want to recall Mantu. This include the donation of N250,000 which Alli gave to each federal legislator to return to his constituency to work for peace, they alleged that Mantu pocketed the money but never visited them.
They cited the case of the House of Representatives member, Hon John Longhor (Mangu/Bokkos) who reali-sed that there was no violence in his cosntitutency, returned the money to the state government.
They consequently gave a one month ultimatum to Mantu to return the money to the Plateau State gover-nment and explain to them why he didn’t use the money for the purpose it was meant.
A top PDP leader in Man-gu who spoke to Daily Trust in Jos yesterday said that if Mantu failed to respond to the ultimatum within the stipulated one month, “he will know the difference between the electorate and the elected.”
On his part, Mantu swung into action when the threat of recall reached him. He sought to break the rank of the PDP in the state so that the recall bid should not have majority votes.
In this regard, he allegedly invited 10 delegates from each of the 17 local gover-nment areas to Abuja with instructions to organise a rally in Jos and pass a vote of no confidence on Dariye and the PDP executive council.
They should thereafter, set up a parallel office.
Habu Shindai tipped to lead the new group refused to comment on the issue asking for more time.
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