- Contrary to speculations that Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe will dump the PDP after the primary, his campaign organisation has said that he is firm in the party
- Dankwambo, through the director-general of the campaign organisation, Professor Terhemba Shija, said that he will remain in the party no matter the result of the presidential primary in the state
- He said that even if his loses, he will support whoever emerges as the winner and work for the success of the party
The presidential campaign organisation of Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo has said that he will remain in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) irrespective of the outcome of the party’s primary.
Professor Terhemba Shija, the director-general of the campaign organisation, gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, August 29.
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He was reacting to speculations that Dankwambo may soon dump the PDP after the presidential primary and seek another platform to actualise his presidential ambition.
Shija said that Dankwambo had consolidated his position in the PDP having distinguished himself as the only state governor who refused to defect before and after 2015 elections in the entire 19 northern states.
He said that the presidential aspirant would accept whatever the outcome of the PDP’s presidential primary and work with whoever emerged as the party’s flag bearer in his determination to re-position Nigeria’s economy.
Shija said: “Luckily, Gov. Dankwambo himself has said it repeatedly that he is a team player. He said that he is a PDP man who was brought up and groomed by the PDP.
“He said that the party is a pool where leaders are grown and that he is one of them. So, nothing will make him walk out of PDP just as he did not walk out of PDP when every other person was running away.
“Don’t forget that people ran away before and after 2015, they said all sorts of things against the party. But Dankwambo stood his ground.
“Many people chickened out because of the Tsunami that APC unleashed on the country. Despite this, our principal stood his ground and fought them to a standstill both in his state and the entire North/East.
“Mind you, he was the only PDP governor who retained his position and eventually returned for a second term as a governor.
“Today, he is one of the most senior in the fold of the PDP governors. He has been resilient and consistent.
“I cannot see him running away from PDP because leaders and delegates at the presidential primary election will prefer somebody like him. Such politicians do not jump around over personal ambition or interests judging from his antecedents.
“At the end of the primaries, let me assure you that he is ready to stay back in PDP and work with whoever eventually emerges.
“But it may not even come to that because the leaders and delegates know that we will win the primary and we will fly the flag of the party.’’
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He said that Dankwambo would help deploy his years of professional experience as a financial expert to salvage the country from economic challenges.
He appealed to other aspirants in PDP to demonstrate the same spirit of sportsmanship in the primary elections slated for late 2018.
Earlier, NAIJ.com had reported that the national secretariat of the PDP in Abuja was on Tuesday, August 28, taken over by the sale of nomination forms to aspirants seeking to contest the 2019 general polls under its wings.
Whereas many aspirants made payments for the forms in bank drafts, others paid through Point of Sales (POS) machines.
Listed among those who collected expression of interest and nomination forms were the Gombe state governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, who is seeking to contest the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the party.
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Source: Naija.ng