From: Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
Ahead of the December 9 national convention of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the Taraba State chapter of the party has endorsed Mr. Uche Secondus as the preferred candidate for the office.
Chairman of the party in the tate, Mr. Victor Bala, declared the support of the state’s party delegates for Secondus during an interaction between the candidates and delegates, in Jalingo, on Tuesday.
Bala said that Mr. Secondus has demonstrated dogged commitment to the growth of the party and his capacity to provide effective leadership by taking up the challenge to save the party during its most trying time.
He maintained that Secondus believe in decentralisation of the party hierarchy to make sure more power resides with the party was the exact recipe that th3 party needs to position itself for victory in 2019 and other future elections.
Earlier, Secondus told the party that he was seeking election as the party chairman not for any selfish interest but to position the party to regain its lost glory and influence.
He said that the party had over the years migrated from the people and focused too much powers at the centre, thereby leaving the state chapters lame and promised to decentralize so that states would present only credible candidates who can withstand keenly contested elections.
“The party has, over the years, migrated from the people and focused all the powers at the centre, and allowed impunity and injustice a place in our great party. When I am elected, I would return powers to the states and allow them to conduct their affairs for our confirmation.
“Too much concentration of powers in Abuja has led to too much agbada flowing and too much confusion. We will ensure that the party is strengthened at the grassroots where the voters are. We would return the party to the people who rightly owns the party”, Secondus said.
The state governor Darius Ishaku, while welcoming the candidate and his team to the state said that as the vice chairman of the convention, he was obliged to remain neutral and avoid taking sides, but assured that the delegates would be allowed to vote their conscience.
Ishaku said the party owed Secondus a debt of gratitude for standing by the party when it was “dead and in the mortuary” to ensure that it has come back to life with the needed vibrancy to take back its place of honor.