Umar Muhammad Coordinator of Taraba Progressive Movement in this pieces writes on the reversing fortunes of the All Progressives Congress APC in Taraba State.

It is something incredible to see that the All Progressives Congress that was causing shivers to Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba PDP has become less than a shadow of its former self, and PDP has become so confident of winning the next governorship elections, crashing the hopes of Tarabians.

Mama Taraba
Hajiya Aisha Alhassan was the fulcrum of the APC in Taraba, but when other ten gubernatorial aspirants saw that the former Minister of Women Affairs had all the officials of the Party working for her to clinch the gubernatorial ticket, they ganged up and got the Party to re-organize the party hierarchy, to give everyone a level playing ground. Aisha was later disqualified by APC during the screening of aspirants – but Sani Abubakar Danladi who was thought to have so much baggage was allowed through.
Aisha later resigned from the party, and got the governorship ticket from UDP. At first she went with just a handful of her supporters, but her party swelled with other APC members who grew disenchanted with the foot-dragging of the party to remove Sani Danladi.
The unfortunate thing is that none of the Party officials deemed it necessary to even talk her into staying back in the party! Yes, Buhari is a brand and he can afford to stay out of party affairs and still win elections, but he should please step up when the people who love him to death have people they hate being shoved down their throats to rule them! Even in PDP that were removed for being impervious to the yearnings of the people, President Obasanjo was able to single-handedly announce the removal of Danladi Baidu for being a ‘thug’, even after he had won the PDP primaries as the gubernatorial candidate. Sani Danladi himself had been expecting his being asked to step down for a more acceptable candidate, that is why he is still paying courtesy calls to Ministers, the President, the Vice President, and anyone he thinks has a say in the party to let him remain as the ticket holder.

APC Primaries
The APC gubernatorial primaries were about to commence in Jalingo when thugs hired by Sani Danladi came in with daggers, matchets, guns, etc went into all the polling units and drove away voters, those who resisted were maimed and left to bleed. Voting documents were carted away. This was pretty much what happened in all the other Local Government Areas. At the end of it all, Returning Officers were bought over, and votes allocated to aspirants in a private house, with aspirants who were the greatest threats to Sani, allocated the least number of votes.
In the evening, the already-compromised Election Committee announced Sani Abubakar Danladi as the winner. Yes, the Sani Abubakar Danladi!
The elections for the seats of House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate were not even held anywhere, and results were announced in Yola, after those candidates had paid money!

Sani Abubakar Danladi
Sani Danladi came into the limelight of Taraba politics when his master Danladi Baidu gave his name as Danbaba’s deputy after Baidu was disqualified by Obasanjo in 2007. Danbaba had to remove him later as his Deputy Governor for an alleged plot to kill him. Sani Danladi made a deal and was restored as the Acting Governor with the promise that he would work for TY Danjuma’s candidate Darius Ishaku and not run for governorship in 2015. During his six months of misrule, it is said that he ‘mopped up’ almost every penny that came to Government into his pockets, even the curtains in Government House did not escape his sweeping when leaving.
He is known for thuggery in all his politics, and the people of Taraba always see him as the cause of all their misfortune. In the APC camp, members saw him as having stolen the votes they gave both Aisha Alhassan and Buhari in 2015, and will never forgive him for such, so allowing him the ticket of APC is a never-never for them.
He also has several cases with the EFCC, including N450m from Diezani and N1.25bn meant for Microfinance, but has refused to appear before the court since becoming the APC ticket holder. Nobody seems to know who is shielding him from EFCC, but Taraba people seem to think that it people in high places.
Recently, his submitted documents to INEC came to the limelight and show that whereas he was shown to have been born in 1977 on his Declaration of Age, his birth year is shown to be 1968 on his WASCE certificate. People think he hired someone too young to claim he was born in 1968 to sit for the exams for him, as there was no way he could have garnered all the credits shown on the certificate.
Right now he is confused and has not had the confidence to start his campaign in earnest. He is busy spreading the ill-gotten wealth he amassed from the treasury of Taraba State around Abuja, lobbying to be retained. He never passes the opportunity to post pictures of him with President Buhari and him with Vice President Osinbajo whom he got access to, through corrupt officials. The thing with Danladi is that there is never any secret with him, he announces who he is going to see anytime he has an appointment with someone in Government, and how much he has ‘budgetted’. He is known to put people on speakerphone, so that those around him and others know that he has the endorsement of those who matter.

The Eight Gubernatorial Aspirants
Once Sani Danladi was announced, eight of the aspirants, David Sabo Kente, Allh. Umar Garba UTC, Ezekiel Irmiya Afokonyo, Aliyu Umar, Bobboi Bala Kaigama Kabiru Umaru, Mohammed Tumba Ibrahim and Prof. Sani Yahaya came together and held a Press Conference rejecting the candidature of Sani Danladi, and asking for the cancelation of the primaries. Most of them are technocrats and command at least 90% of the APC members in the State. The aspirants wrote letters to the Party, the Appeal Committee, the ‘Presidential Committee’, the Reconciliation Committee and even the President asking for the removal of Danladi. They asked the Party to replace Danladi with any of them, and later even chose one person as a consensus candidate. In the end, only the ‘Presidential Committee’ and the reconciliation Committee met with them.
Presently, they are said to have vowed to support any one among them that is given the ticket, but will vote only for President Buhari if Danladi is allowed to remain. They are all people who have Taraba State and its people at heart, they are not professional politicians who see politics as a meal ticket, and are willing to kill or die for it, but are there because of the wretched situation they now see their people in. The main thing for them is to get the right person who will work for the emancipation of Tarabians, someone who will harness Taraba’s money and resources work for Taraba and its people. It is not a do-or-die affair for them, that is why at the instruction of the ‘Presidential Committee’, seven of them jettisoned their ambitions and selected one consensus candidate to support.

Finally
As it is now, nobody has to look at any crystal ball to know that APC is not going to make it to Government House in 2019. Even PDP that had paid a lot to gather materials to take Danladi to court and get him disqualified at the last minute so that APC will have no gubernatorial candidate, is now reconsidering to let him run because they know he cannot win. Apart from the thuggery, criminal tendencies and misrule in 2014, Sani’s support by the Bala Lau faction of the Izala Group led by Dr. Jalo in Taraba who never misses any opportunity to criticize Christians and CAN does not endear him to the Christians in the State. The only people presently with him now are a few greedy professional politicians who cannot survive on anything but politics. The thing to wonder is that the party has turned a blind eye to all this. Is it that they are pretending that everything will work out fine in the end, or that they think Sani will have a grand plan to rig himself into Government House? The people of Taraba PDP and even some APC members think that it is the second option, and are ready to see that it does not happen. The writing is brightly on the wall that APC is fractionalized and cannot as it is, win any election. Some of their members have already gone to PDP, a large chunk has gone to Mama Taraba, the rest are being kept from leaving the party by the eight aspirants, who still have hope that the party will do something. How can the APC now with this, hope to win against PDP, who hold all the money and power? The people of Taraba have suffered under the leadership of Ishaku in the State, and are yearning for change, but it looks like they have been abandoned by the party they were looking up to, for rescue. There are still a lot of baffling questions, like is the Party going to do anything before the last day of 17th December? Some die-hard APC-forever members think so, and are hanging on.
There is still time to correct this, as the people of the State are ready to support an alternative candidate, as anybody else will be better than Danladi, since everyone is tired of Ishaku, and an alternative candidate will be able to galvanize and win the election for APC even as at now. Mama Taraba should be encouraged to return to the Party as an elder of the Party because she has sworn never to support Danladi, Danladi himself should be made to see reason and asked to give another candidate the ticket, then be compensated by another elective position. The fate of the suffering masses in the State lie on Party and every person who can do something about this. Tarabians are people – real people who have yearnings and hope, and are very much aware of their rights, not people that are to be looked down upon. They feel that their views are not respected, and nobody cares if a thief or a thug rules over them for another eight years. The people of Taraba love Buhari, and felt that he could have done something in 2015 to help APC, and still looking up to him and hope that he will do something for Taraba, this time. Please President Buhari, please Chairman Oshiomhole, come to the aid of Tarabians. God is watching, and the people of Taraba are watching. They know the type of leader they want, and would resist vehemently for an imposition of a candidate like Danladi.APC on a dwindling path in Taraba State

Umar Muhammad Coordinator of Taraba Progressive Movement in this pieces writes on the reversing fortunes of the All Progressives Congress APC in Taraba State.

It is something incredible to see that the All Progressives Congress that was causing shivers to Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba PDP has become less than a shadow of its former self, and PDP has become so confident of winning the next governorship elections, crashing the hopes of Tarabians.

Mama Taraba
Hajiya Aisha Alhassan was the fulcrum of the APC in Taraba, but when other ten gubernatorial aspirants saw that the former Minister of Women Affairs had all the officials of the Party working for her to clinch the gubernatorial ticket, they ganged up and got the Party to re-organize the party hierarchy, to give everyone a level playing ground. Aisha was later disqualified by APC during the screening of aspirants – but Sani Abubakar Danladi who was thought to have so much baggage was allowed through.
Aisha later resigned from the party, and got the governorship ticket from UDP. At first she went with just a handful of her supporters, but her party swelled with other APC members who grew disenchanted with the foot-dragging of the party to remove Sani Danladi.
The unfortunate thing is that none of the Party officials deemed it necessary to even talk her into staying back in the party! Yes, Buhari is a brand and he can afford to stay out of party affairs and still win elections, but he should please step up when the people who love him to death have people they hate being shoved down their throats to rule them! Even in PDP that were removed for being impervious to the yearnings of the people, President Obasanjo was able to single-handedly announce the removal of Danladi Baidu for being a ‘thug’, even after he had won the PDP primaries as the gubernatorial candidate. Sani Danladi himself had been expecting his being asked to step down for a more acceptable candidate, that is why he is still paying courtesy calls to Ministers, the President, the Vice President, and anyone he thinks has a say in the party to let him remain as the ticket holder.

APC Primaries
The APC gubernatorial primaries were about to commence in Jalingo when thugs hired by Sani Danladi came in with daggers, matchets, guns, etc went into all the polling units and drove away voters, those who resisted were maimed and left to bleed. Voting documents were carted away. This was pretty much what happened in all the other Local Government Areas. At the end of it all, Returning Officers were bought over, and votes allocated to aspirants in a private house, with aspirants who were the greatest threats to Sani, allocated the least number of votes.
In the evening, the already-compromised Election Committee announced Sani Abubakar Danladi as the winner. Yes, the Sani Abubakar Danladi!
The elections for the seats of House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate were not even held anywhere, and results were announced in Yola, after those candidates had paid money!

Sani Abubakar Danladi
Sani Danladi came into the limelight of Taraba politics when his master Danladi Baidu gave his name as Danbaba’s deputy after Baidu was disqualified by Obasanjo in 2007. Danbaba had to remove him later as his Deputy Governor for an alleged plot to kill him. Sani Danladi made a deal and was restored as the Acting Governor with the promise that he would work for TY Danjuma’s candidate Darius Ishaku and not run for governorship in 2015. During his six months of misrule, it is said that he ‘mopped up’ almost every penny that came to Government into his pockets, even the curtains in Government House did not escape his sweeping when leaving.
He is known for thuggery in all his politics, and the people of Taraba always see him as the cause of all their misfortune. In the APC camp, members saw him as having stolen the votes they gave both Aisha Alhassan and Buhari in 2015, and will never forgive him for such, so allowing him the ticket of APC is a never-never for them.
He also has several cases with the EFCC, including N450m from Diezani and N1.25bn meant for Microfinance, but has refused to appear before the court since becoming the APC ticket holder. Nobody seems to know who is shielding him from EFCC, but Taraba people seem to think that it people in high places.
Recently, his submitted documents to INEC came to the limelight and show that whereas he was shown to have been born in 1977 on his Declaration of Age, his birth year is shown to be 1968 on his WASCE certificate. People think he hired someone too young to claim he was born in 1968 to sit for the exams for him, as there was no way he could have garnered all the credits shown on the certificate.
Right now he is confused and has not had the confidence to start his campaign in earnest. He is busy spreading the ill-gotten wealth he amassed from the treasury of Taraba State around Abuja, lobbying to be retained. He never passes the opportunity to post pictures of him with President Buhari and him with Vice President Osinbajo whom he got access to, through corrupt officials. The thing with Danladi is that there is never any secret with him, he announces who he is going to see anytime he has an appointment with someone in Government, and how much he has ‘budgetted’. He is known to put people on speakerphone, so that those around him and others know that he has the endorsement of those who matter.

The Eight Gubernatorial Aspirants
Once Sani Danladi was announced, eight of the aspirants, David Sabo Kente, Allh. Umar Garba UTC, Ezekiel Irmiya Afokonyo, Aliyu Umar, Bobboi Bala Kaigama Kabiru Umaru, Mohammed Tumba Ibrahim and Prof. Sani Yahaya came together and held a Press Conference rejecting the candidature of Sani Danladi, and asking for the cancelation of the primaries. Most of them are technocrats and command at least 90% of the APC members in the State. The aspirants wrote letters to the Party, the Appeal Committee, the ‘Presidential Committee’, the Reconciliation Committee and even the President asking for the removal of Danladi. They asked the Party to replace Danladi with any of them, and later even chose one person as a consensus candidate. In the end, only the ‘Presidential Committee’ and the reconciliation Committee met with them.
Presently, they are said to have vowed to support any one among them that is given the ticket, but will vote only for President Buhari if Danladi is allowed to remain. They are all people who have Taraba State and its people at heart, they are not professional politicians who see politics as a meal ticket, and are willing to kill or die for it, but are there because of the wretched situation they now see their people in. The main thing for them is to get the right person who will work for the emancipation of Tarabians, someone who will harness Taraba’s money and resources work for Taraba and its people. It is not a do-or-die affair for them, that is why at the instruction of the ‘Presidential Committee’, seven of them jettisoned their ambitions and selected one consensus candidate to support.

Finally
As it is now, nobody has to look at any crystal ball to know that APC is not going to make it to Government House in 2019. Even PDP that had paid a lot to gather materials to take Danladi to court and get him disqualified at the last minute so that APC will have no gubernatorial candidate, is now reconsidering to let him run because they know he cannot win. Apart from the thuggery, criminal tendencies and misrule in 2014, Sani’s support by the Bala Lau faction of the Izala Group led by Dr. Jalo in Taraba who never misses any opportunity to criticize Christians and CAN does not endear him to the Christians in the State. The only people presently with him now are a few greedy professional politicians who cannot survive on anything but politics. The thing to wonder is that the party has turned a blind eye to all this. Is it that they are pretending that everything will work out fine in the end, or that they think Sani will have a grand plan to rig himself into Government House? The people of Taraba PDP and even some APC members think that it is the second option, and are ready to see that it does not happen. The writing is brightly on the wall that APC is fractionalized and cannot as it is, win any election. Some of their members have already gone to PDP, a large chunk has gone to Mama Taraba, the rest are being kept from leaving the party by the eight aspirants, who still have hope that the party will do something. How can the APC now with this, hope to win against PDP, who hold all the money and power? The people of Taraba have suffered under the leadership of Ishaku in the State, and are yearning for change, but it looks like they have been abandoned by the party they were looking up to, for rescue. There are still a lot of baffling questions, like is the Party going to do anything before the last day of 17th December? Some die-hard APC-forever members think so, and are hanging on.
There is still time to correct this, as the people of the State are ready to support an alternative candidate, as anybody else will be better than Danladi, since everyone is tired of Ishaku, and an alternative candidate will be able to galvanize and win the election for APC even as at now. Mama Taraba should be encouraged to return to the Party as an elder of the Party because she has sworn never to support Danladi, Danladi himself should be made to see reason and asked to give another candidate the ticket, then be compensated by another elective position. The fate of the suffering masses in the State lie on Party and every person who can do something about this. Tarabians are people – real people who have yearnings and hope, and are very much aware of their rights, not people that are to be looked down upon. They feel that their views are not respected, and nobody cares if a thief or a thug rules over them for another eight years. The people of Taraba love Buhari, and felt that he could have done something in 2015 to help APC, and still looking up to him and hope that he will do something for Taraba, this time. Please President Buhari, please Chairman Oshiomhole, come to the aid of Tarabians. God is watching, and the people of Taraba are watching. They know the type of leader they want, and would resist vehemently for an imposition of a candidate like Danladi.