There was tension in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau State on Monday, leading to the suspension of the State Chairman of the party, Dr. Haruna Dabin, by the State Executive Committee.
Dabin was suspended after an extra ordinary meeting in Jos, the Plateau State capital, where he was accused of misappropriation of party funds and instituting a suit against the party.
A communiqué issued by the members of the State Executive Committee later showed that Dabin actually misappropriated an unspecified amount of money adding that “in view of the deliberate refusal by the party Chairman to call meetings of the various organs of the party for an unduly long period of time, and the consequent failure to render financial accounts to the party,” he had been suspended.
The document was signed by top party members including the Chairman of Mangu Local Government Area, Barrister Caleb Mutfwang and the PDP Chairman of Qua’an Pan Local Government Area, Hon. Noel Maiyaki.
The communiqué also stated that there were convincing indications that Dabin instigated some members of the party to institute a law suit against the party, and that “the State Executive Committee is constrained to suspend the chairman pending full investigations by the party’s disciplinary committee within two weeks from 16/06/2014.
“The party frowns at the tendency of some members to rush to court without exhausting the party mechanisms provided for in the party’s constitution for settling internal party disputes,” read the communiqué. “Members are warned that henceforth the party will not hesitate to mete out disciplinary measures against such violations of the party’s constitution.”
The communiqué instructed the State Deputy Chairman, Hon. Raymond Dabo, to act in the capacity of the chairman until the crisis was fully resolved.
Earlier on Monday afternoon, security officers had stormed the party secretariat and sealed the entire place thus causing confusion among the staff, some of whom called the chairman to intimate him of the development as he was not around when the sealing of the secretariat took place.
According to the embattled chairman, a meeting where it was resolved to seal the secretariat was held at the Government House thus signifying that the State Governor, Jonah Jang, was privy to it. It was learnt that the meeting at the Government House was convened by the party’s secretary, Pam Saleh, without his knowledge. He thus described the meeting as illegal.
But sources close to Dabin claim that his “unfortunate persecution” is simply because he recently declared his ambition to run for governorship election in the State in 2015. According to Dabin’s loyalists, the governor is not comfortable with his gubernatorial ambition and had since instigated various allegations against him because of that.
