Yusuf Sulaiman, Ex APC Guber Aspirant, Gets DG Sokoto PDP Campaign Committee
Gbolahan Salman Sokoto
A former gubernatorial aspirants on the platform of All Progressive Congress (APC), in Sokoto State, Honourable Yusuf Suleiman, has been appointed as the Director General of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), gubernatorial campaign in the state.
Yusuf Suleiman, who was one of the gubernatorial aspirants seeking the tickets of the main opposition party in the state defected to the PDP alongside four other aspirants citing allegedly high handedness by the leadership of the APC in the state.
The Director General who was a former Minister of Transportation was also the Director General of the All Progressive Congress in the 2019 gubernatorial elections in the state.
The state chairman of the PDP, Honourable Bello Goronyo, disclosed this while addressing party members at the International Conference Center, Kasarawa, Sokoto on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the state governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has cedes the state campaign chair to former governor and the leader of the party in the state, Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa.
The campaign team is modeled after the national one.
Governor Tambuwal who graciously declined the position at the inauguration by the state branch of the party held at the International Conference Center, Kasarawa, Sokoto, on the ground that he is currently the Director General of the party’s presidential candidate at the national level, explained that he cannot combine the two positions.
He, however, described the emergence of ex-Minister and former All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart in the state, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman as the state campaign Director General as a win-win strategy for the party.
According to him, the appointment of Suleiman, who was hitherto in the APC, shows that there are no new or old members in the state PDP. “Seeking people’s mandate is the business of those who can mobilize support and not otherwise,”
“Vote seeking is an inclusive endeavor. Anyone that can deliver should be brought on board so that we can win elections,” Governor Tambuwal said.
On the choice of the gubernatorial candidate in the state, the Governor said it was not his personal interest that determined it but consensual agreement by all stakeholders.
“Ubandoma emerged as a result of a consensual agreement between all stakeholders and not as a result of any deal involving promise of payoff or branch bribe between myself and him.
“The only thing I demanded from him was that he would hold the trust and confidence reposed in him by the people while working to bring more development to the state,” the Governor disclosed.
He explained that his only goal is that he wants to ensure that state is bequeathed with a leadership structure that would ensure its subsequent development.
While expressing confidence that the PDP shall win all elections from the presidential to state assemblies next year, Tambuwal urged all people of the state to vote the party all the way in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
“Go and campaign without violence. I committed to the same in 2019 and will follow the same trajectory in the coming elections,” he admonished the party’s teeming supporters.
In his acceptance speech, the Director General of the state campaign management council, Yusuf Suleiman said the council will work hard in order for the party to win the 2023 general election.
“We don’t intend to lose a single seat in the forthcoming 2023 general elections,” he emphasized, while thanking the governor for giving them the opportunity to serve the party just as assured the committee will conduct a violence-free campaign as well as a peaceful election.
