PDP Affirms Garba Umar As Taraba Acting-Governor

The Senator Hope Uzodinma committee empanelled by the Peoples Democratic Party to mediate in the state’s political imbroglio has asked the state’s deputy governor to continue in office as acting governor but should take instructions directly from ailing Governor Danbaba Suntai.

The decisions, spokesperson to the Acting Governor, Kefas Sule, told PREMIUM TIMES, were reached Tuesday afternoon after the committee met with Governor Suntai and Deputy Governor Garba Umar.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Mr. Uzodinma said Mr. Umar should continue to rule Taraba based on instructions he receives directly from Mr. Suntai.

More details later ….
See below our earlier report on the committee’s visit to Taraba

The presidency and the headquarters of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will send a high-powered delegation to visit Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, on Tuesday to try to resolve the political crisis in the state, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

The spokesperson of Acting Governor Garba Umar, Kefas Sule, said the state government had concluded arrangements to receive the delegation.

“We are aware of the visit, and we have been told they are coming to mediate on the political crisis in the state,” Mr. Sule told PREMIUM TIMES.

He also said the delegation is expected to arrive Jalingo by 11 a.m., adding, however, that no venue had been announced for the meeting. He also did not confirm if the team would be meeting both the Acting Governor and Mr. Suntai separately or together.

Efforts to reach two of the president’s aides, Doyin Okupe and Ahmed Gulak, were unsuccessful as they did not answer calls made to their mobile telephones.

Sources however said the two delegations might be led by the National Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur.
However, one of Mr. Suntai’s confidant, Emmanuel Bwacha, who is also a serving Senator had informed the BBC Hausa service on Monday that the governor’s camp did not have confidence in Mr. Tukur wading into the crisis as a neutral person.

Mr. Bwacha said it was wrong of Mr. Tukur to declare that the leadership of the party could not allow ‘governing by proxy’ in the state, without first conducting a proper investigation.

Also, Mr. Tukur had earlier raised a Taraba fact-finding committee under the leadership of another Senator, Hope Uzodinma, to investigate the true state of Mr. Suntai’s health while he was still in the hospital in the U.S.
But as soon as the committee was set to start its assignment, two members of the PDP in the state, Jude Garba from Sardauna Local Government Area and Sale Audu from Takum Local Government Area, approached a state High Court under Justice Nuhu Adi, asking for an interim order restraining the PDP and the Uzodinma committee from acting pending the determination of the substantive suit.

In spite of the court order, the Uzodinma committee paid a ‘solidarity visit’ to the ailing governor on his hospital bed in the U.S.
While in the U.S., Mr. Uzodinma told the media, “We are impressed with what we have seen and we thank God for that. We will take back home what we have seen and we will inform the leadership of the party”.