A former Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, says he has informed the President about his desire to become the governor of Adamawa State.
Gulak, who spoke in Abuja on Friday when he came to pick the Peoples Democratic Party governorship nomination form for his state, said the President did not object to his ambition.
He said as the leader of the party and his former boss, there was nothing wrong in informing the President.
Gulak said, “Mr president is the leader of party and father of the nation. Everybody is supposed to intimate him on his intention to stand. But he is always by the people and he knows that the voice of the people is the voice of God.
“I have informed Mr president of my ambition just like other aspirants ought to have done and he will not tell you not to since it in an ambition.”
He, however, expressed doubt over the membership of some aspirants saying they have not fulfilled the two year constitutional provision by the PDP for them to be granted waiver as members.
He specifically said he was not aware that a former Military Administrator of Lagos State, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa(retd.), an aspirant under PDP has met the waiver criteria as he joined PDP upon the emergence of the All Progressives Congress.
He said the same thing applied to a former governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Marcus Gundiri, who has also defected to the PDP and has signified his intention to contest the governorship election on the platform of the PDP. [eap_ad_1] Gulak added that the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, who is a chief of the APC, is welcomed to the PDP provided he is ready “to eat his vomit over negative comments he made against PDP.”
Commenting on the waiver of Marwa and other aspirants, however, Gulak, who cited section 50 of the PDP’s constitution which provides a two-year period for waiver, said “I am not aware that Marwa and some others have followed the waiver provisions as contained in the party’s constitution as long as anyone wants to contest.
“Procedures for waivers are clearly spelt out in the constitution beginning from the ward through the zonal levels. You must have been a member of the party for two years.”
On speculated moves that Ribadu intends to join the PDP, Gulak who described Ribadu as a friend and brother, recalled that the former EFCC chairman was a presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria and was at the vanguard of the APC merger.
Gulak while quoting a statement of Ribadu upon the merger of the APC that he will not join PDP even if he was offered the presidential ticket for free said “if he decides to summersault and eat his words he is welcome to PDP.”
He said, “He is welcome any time any day, whether in APC or any other party, it is the people that will decide. Nobody can sit somewhere and decide who becomes governor of a place.”
Gulak also rubbished the claims cited by a former deputy governor in the state, James Ngilari, in his law suit against his impeachment, noting Ngilari, being a lawyer, ought to know what steps to take in order to effect resignation.
While he questioned the intent of the former governor over the procedure of his resignation, he said “Ngilari cannot benefit from his act which has an element of fraud.”
Ahead of governorship election in the state on October 11, 2014 PDP has fixed its ward congress for September 1 while the party primary is said to have been fixed for the middle of September. (Punch)
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