2023: Why Atiku Is After Me- Bauchi Gov

Bala Mohammed, the governor of Bauchi state has disclosed that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar has not forgiven him for contesting the last PDP presidential primary held in May this year.

The Bauchi governor was among the aspirants that vied against Atiku in the PDP presidential shadow election which threw up the former vice president as the party’s flagbearer in the 2023 presidential election.

Atiku defeated Mohammed and the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike to clinch the ticket after polling a total of 37 votes.

The Bauchi helmsman had since been named the vice chairman of the Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign in the Northeast.

In spite of this, Governor Mohammed said Atiku is still nursing a vendetta against him more than five months after the conclusion of the primary.

According to a letter the governor wrote to the National Chairman of the PDP, Iyorcha Ayu, he said he has been sidelined in the PDP campaign, noting that the reason may have been because he contested against Atiku.

The Bauchi helmsman said this in a protest letter, with reference number, GH/OFF/09/V.I, and dated November 3, 2022.

He claimed that he was “excluded from the activities of the PCC” as it relates to his office.

Mohammed said in the letter;  “I was deliberately sidelined from the reach-out campaign of the PCC in Kaduna, which interacted with major stakeholder groups and the northern political establishments such as the Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Elders Forum, Sadauna Foundation, Arewa Research, and Development Progress, etcetera.”

“While Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his political cohorts insist that I must be “punished” for contesting against him during the presidential primaries of our party. The self-acclaimed ‘kingmakers’ around the Waziri Adamawa want a pound of flesh from me because I have refused to capitulate to their unbridled sense of entitlement which is pregnant with selfishness and dictatorial tendencies.

“The last group of the “Bala Must Go” campaigners are those whose egos have been bruised by my continued political relevance, rising national profile, and the groundswell of public acclamation that have trailed unprecedented developmental strides of the PDP-led administration in the state,” the governor said.

Meanwhile, Ayu and other PDP stalwarts have met with Governor Mohammed and promised to address the issue.