2019: Sule Lamido withdraw his support for Atiku

Umar Danjani, an aide of former Jigawa state governor has claimed that Sule Lamido, may withdraw support for the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, in the upcoming presidential election, Premium Times reports.

Lamido, one of the aspirants who lost out at the opposition party presidential primaries vowed to support Abubakar’s bid to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari at the 2019 polls.

But Danjani, said his boss was not happy with the way the PDP presidential campaign team sidelined him in activities in the aftermath of the presidential primaries.

Lamido on Thursday, November 15, at a PDP stakeholders meeting at the party’s state secretariat in Dutse, commended party delegates for the election, stating that it was their choices that made some of the aspirants emerge as candidates.

At the event, Lamido officially endorsed PDP’s gubernatorial candidate, Aminu Ringim; the senatorial candidates and House of Representatives in the state but declined to openly endorse Abubakar as the party presidential candidate.

A source close to Lamido said: “Atiku has not been fair to Lamido, as a co-founder of the PDP and die-hard member of the party who has never changed base, but Lamido has been sidelined in the activities of the party ever since Atiku won the party ticket.

“You can imagine that they held strategy meeting in Dubai and Abuja but none of these meetings was he invited or briefed on the outcome of the meeting. I wonder whether the meeting is only for the PDP decampees and families because I saw the Senate President and (ex-Kano governor) Rabiu Kwankwaso at the meetings,” the source said.

However, Danjani said that PDP presidential campaign team is not ready to win 2019 election because: “if people like Sule Lamido are sidelined then definitely Atiku should forget about winning the presidential seat”.

“You are having meeting with Rabiu Kwankwaso who just returned to the party without a structure on ground and having crises with all of his trustees thinking that he is relevant in Kano, you are wasting your time.

“We’re waiting for Sule Lamido to give us direction on the next political movement, because we can’t be slaves in our own house. We are going to organise five million youth rally in Dutse where all Sule Lamido supporters across the country will attend. There we will decide our political faith,” Danjani said.