PDP can’t survive Supreme Court’s axe — Tapgun

A former Plateau State governor, Fidelis Tapgun has said it would be impossible for his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to get a favourable judgment from the Supreme Court.

Tapgun, who spoke to the Hausa Service of Radio France International (RFI), monitored by our correspondent in Jos, said he had warned his party before the 2023 general elections over the previous court judgements against PDP on structure but his warning was ignored.

According to the former governor, there was no way PDP would survive at the Supreme Court because all lawmakers at the National and state assembly, who contested elections on the platform of PDP were sacked by the Court of Appeal on the ground that the PDP lacks structure to sponsor candidates in an election, adding that Governor Caleb Mutfwang was also sacked by the Appeal Court on same ground.

Tapgun, who recently advised Mutfwang to resign his position, explained that “You know, we have a lot of internal crises in the PDP. The crisis started since 2021. We tried all we could to resolve the problem but we couldn’t because some of us refused to agree.

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“The problem was what prevented us from participating in the 2021 LGA election. I took the matter to the headquarters of the PDP in Abuja. The national headquarters of the party was not ready to resolve the problem. I understood that they have people they love and those they don’t.

“Politics is not about one individual but about the people. While we were waiting to solve the problem, the North Central Zonal Chairman, Theophilus Shan was sent from Abuja to Plateau and conducted a primary that produced Governor Caleb Mutfwang. I warned them not to do that because we are likely to fail. We made that mistake in 2015 and we are still repeating it now.

“After the exercise, Mutfwang got the governorship ticket, and I told him that there were three court judgements against us; two at the high courts and one at the Court of Appeal but he replied me that he knows about the judgements and he had already assembled a team of qualified lawyers who could defend the case and therefore, there was no problem. I told him categorically that it won’t work. I told him that I will not campaign for or against him,” he added.