Suswam: External Forces Undermining PDP

Former Benue State governor, Senator Gabriel Suswam, has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was being undermined by external forces, which had rendered it ineffective as a viable alternative opposition.

He called for an overhaul of the party leadership as a way to reactivate the PDP to play a viable alternative.

He lamented that the party had since after the 2023 general election failed to live up to expectations of Nigerians as a viable opposition.

Suswam disclosed this in an interview on a television programme, where he blamed the current leadership of the party for failing to call a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party.

Suswam, who blamed the current PDP leadership for the ineffective state of the largest opposition party in the country, said unless there was an overhaul of its leadership, the party would “go nowhere” because the current leadership has lost focus.

“I think there are subterranean forces inferring in the party and they are determining what is going on in the party. And the leadership is acquiescing to it.

“Subterranean suggests that people are trying to control the party from the outside. They are controlling the party from the outside and they are keeping the party in a comatose state,” he said.

The Benue senator added that the party has refused to call a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, which would have helped resolve some of the issues arising in the party.

He regretted the inability of the party to resolve the fallout of the 2022 presidential primary election, which saw a group of five governors work against the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election.

He added that the inability of the Iliya Damagum-led leadership to discipline erring party members worsened the situation.

Suswam said it was wrong for the party not to have sanctioned the G-5 governors and their allies, who openly declared that they would remain in the party and work against its interest.