Ribadu Puts Adamawa PDP under pressure

        The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party in Adamawa State is under intense pressure to zone the governorship ticket to the Central District of the state.

The zone is the area where four governorship aspirants hail from.

The aspirants are the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu; a former Minister of a State for Health, Dr. Aliyu Idi-Hong; a former member of the National Assembly, Sen. Abubakar Girei and Awwal Tukur, son of the former chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

It was gathered that the zone remained the only zone out of three, that has yet to produce a governor in the state.

Already, stakeholders and leaders in the party from the 21 local governments were said to have held a meeting on in Yola, the state capital on Friday.

A highly placed source who was part of the meetings told journalists in Abuja on Sunday that the stakeholders were unanimous in taking the decision which he said was to “placate the politically disadvantaged Central zone which is politically excluded despite its numerical strength”.

He said the zoning consensus was being planned in line with what he described as the spirit of the PDP constitution which he said encourages zoning as a way of revolving offices to accommodate all geopolitical groupings.

According to him, during the time Governor Murtala Nyako was in power, the Central Zone was not occupying any of the top five positions in the state.

He said this was not even corrected when the former governor was impeached, adding that the Acting Governor, Alhaji Ahmadu Fintiri has refused to correct what he described as injustice.

The acting governor is from the Northern zone.

The source said, “The Northern Senatorial Zone stands out as the highest beneficiary in terms of occupying prestigious political offices, both elective and appointive, among the zones.

“They produced three governors, who were Saleh Michika, Boni Haruna and Wilberforce Juta.

“They also produced two deputy governors in the persons of David Barau and James Ngilari. This same zone produced three speakers of the House, who were Paul Wampana, Ahmed Gulak and Ahmadu Fintiri.

“Presently, the acting governor of the state well as two serving ministers – Haruna and Zainab Maina, are all from the Northern zone.”

The Southern Senatorial Zone, he noted, has produced two governors and a Deputy Governor. They are Tukur, Nyako and Chief Lynn Nathan.

He explained that various speakers at the meeting observed that at various times, capable and promising aspirants from the Central Zone were persuaded to shelve their ambitions for aspirants from another zone.

“In considering the zoning of the position of the Governor to the Central Zone, it would not be out of place to zone the position of the Deputy Governor to the Southern Zone in particular to the Ganye Chiefdom that comprises of Toungo, Jada and Ganye,” the source added.