Achiever Peterson, Abuja
Indications emerged on Monday that the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu and the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, are plotting to substitute the name of the party’s candidate for Bayelsa West Senatorial District, Dr. Foster Ogola with Senator Heineken Lokpobiri.
Presidency sources in Abuja hinted that the scheme to replace Ogola with the first lady’s anointed candidate and incumbent Senator Lokpobiri had reached an advanced stage.
Lokpobiri lost out of the primary election of the party which was held in Sagbama Town, Sagbama Local Government Area of the state, where Ogola was declared the winner.
The senator later began to drag the ticket after winning a parallel primary election, the result of which was rejected by the national leadership of the party.
But it was gathered that Mu’azu had been drafted into the First Lady’s scheme of seeking alternative ways of replacing Ogola with Lokpobiri.
A reliable party source said the national chairman of PDP had been compromised to use his office and the machinery of the party to return Lokpobiri “by all means”.
The source who pleaded anonymity said a lot of money was involved in the plot adding that “very soon” Mu’azu will through the PDP file a suit at the Federal High Court to that effect.
He said lawyers attached to the PDP are already working on the legal documents and will soon institute a case at the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa to reclaim the party’s ticket from Ogola.
Among other things, he said the substitution case will argue that Ogola’s name was sent to INEC in error.
The source said the questionable activities of Mu’azu had further deepened the crisis and disaffections in the party.
“Everything is about money and personal ambitions in our party. The leadership of the party especially the current one does not care about the interest of the people. This is the reason why PDP is crumbling and the President seems helpless.
“People who are supposed to provide level-playing field and protect the constitution of the party are the ones making huge sums of money out of primaries. The collect money from moneybags and make them candidates. That is why our party is bleeding”, he said.
He said that the First Lady was angry that Lokpobiri, a core member of his camp, failed to clinch the party’s ticket.
The source said: “This is a concluded issue. The name of Ogola was sent to INEC and was already published by the commission. Is the PDP just realising that it was done in error?
“But we know that the case will not fly because they do not have any evidence to prove otherwise. Everybody saw the primaries and what transpired and people have the video clips”.
