By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi
The National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu has commended Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed for the tumultuous reception he recently gave the Atiku/Okowa Presidential campaign team when it was in Bauchi for consultation with stakeholders.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu also noted with delight, the show of party strength in Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed exhibited at the recent party stakeholders meeting led by the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Senator Ayu told the meeting host governor, “We are back here to appreciate what you did to us as a party a few weeks ago. Your Excellency, we were coming to meet stakeholders of the Northeast zone. You turned it into a show of strength, showing how strong the PDP is in Bauchi”.
Ayu, was speaking in Bauchi at the weekend, when he led some members of the PDP presidential campaign council including its Director General and Sokoto State Governor, Waziri Aminu Tambuwal, Jigawa State former governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido and some few key members of the party.
He said, “You stimulated the campaign of the PDP so much. The whole country was talking about it, the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium (ATBS) was full of excitement and even outside the stadium had more people than inside”.
According to him, the event clearly demonstrated that the PDP is very strong in Bauchi and also people of the state are fully behind the leadership of Governor Bala Mohammed.
Senator Iyorchia Ayu explained that they were in Bauchi as part of their consultation tour with stakeholders in the Northeast geo-political zone of the country to strategize on the PDP presidential electioneering campaigns.
‘We are here to also brief you on some of the developments going on in the party nationally and to seek your wise counsel because you are not just the Governor of Bauchi, you are a leader in this country, very experienced in all the places you served you gather experiences”.
The PDP Chairman added, “We feel people like you in this campaign from time to time we need to come around for consultations and brief you and discuss few things with you. So basically that is the reason for this visit, and I’m happy, we thank you very much with the wonderful reception you accorded us”.
The PDP delegation had a two-hour closed-door meeting with Governor Bala Mohammed who is also the Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Campaign Council in charge of the North.
Governor Bala Mohammed has while responding noted that, “This powerful delegation of PDP and Atiku/Okowa campaign team are in Bauchi for consultation with stakeholders to strategize on the electioneering campaigns”.
“Your Excellences, we are not expecting august visitors in November, but certainly we have one, two and three, that is too much for us to chew. As you say, this is part of collaboration and interaction since we are not purview to what you are here for”.
He however said, “We appreciate that you have appreciated our modest contributions to the party. We are loyal members of the party and we believe in the party because we rose on the back of the party to become what we have become”.
Governor Bala added, “We know we came from the blues from the opposition ANPP then, but certainly whatever we became is courtesy of your party, and some of you that are founding father, we cannot keep quite without appreciating geniuses and creativity to plot this party”.
The Governor who described the visit as fatherly, concluded, “Today many people are benefitting from the party. So we thank you sincerely for the visit, Bauchi is PDP and PDP is Bauchi, we are very happy”.
Confronted by the press shortly after the closed-door meeting, the governor said, “We have discussed issues affecting especially my area as vice chairman of the presidential campaign council in charge of the North, so they came up with issues regarding some grey areas that we cross the teeth and eyes but which are not for public consumption”.
