PDP Plans to take over Borno & Yobe as the 2014 Election Approaches

As the 2015 general elections approaches, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has concluded arrangements to take over both Borno and Yobe states through a tactical team headed by the Minister of State for Power, Hon Mohammed Wakil.

A tactical committee has been put up comprising of some key leaders from the zone with series of meetings already held in Abuja and Maiduguri. The party’s plan is to take over not just Borno and Yobe states but Ekiti and Osun states to compensate for whatever loss the party may experience in the North/Western part of the country at the 2015 general elections.

The committee, said to have the blessing of the Presidency is said to have prepared an elaborate plans hinged on three pronged strategies for the operation take over Borno and Yobe states. The agenda is based on three strategies which implementation is said to be ongoing in the affected states.

At a time debate is on as to whether election should hold in the two states or not, checks showed that the Presidency accepted the three pronged agenda in anticipation that election will still be held in the two states. Wakil, who is a former North-East zonal vicechairman of the party, is particularly tasked with the implementation of the three point strategies starting with Borno State.

The first plan, according to a source privy to the agenda, is to push ahead with the ploy to lure the Borno State governor, Kashim Shetimma, into the PDP. The plot is said to have reached an advanced state even though the reconciliation between Senator Ali Modu Sherrif and the governor is still shaky.

A PDP source said the party, through Wakil, is reaching out to ensure that the governor is given a space to rerun for the governorship in 2015 on the platform of the PDP.

Checks showed that Wakil is a childhood friend of the governor and he was said to have had several meetings with the governor with the plan to impress on the governor on the need to cross over to the PDP. Wakil just last week travelled to Borno and met the governor, who was also full of praises of Wakil and top PDP leaders who visited him at the Government House.

The second plot was the immediate rebuilding of Borno PDP, which has started in earnest going by development in Borno chapter of the party. It was learnt that the PDP structure was virtually paralyzed with series of defection and very low morale among party members.

The inner caucus of the President were said to have concluded that Wakil’s records placed him in good stead to lead the rebuilding efforts. A source in the Presidency said Wakil is expected to provide leadership for the party by strengthening its structures across the 27 local government areas of the state. “The PDP structure is said to have collapsed.

The President believed Wakil with his records, despite his young age, is the right man to lead the rebuilding and take over plot,” the source said. In pursuance of the agenda, Wakil was in Borno State holding clandestine meetings and setting up what a source called task forces.

He was said to have moved round the dangerous part of the state, meeting PDP leaders including a visit to the heart of Maiduguri where he had closed door meeting with an undisclosed elder statesman.

Further findings showed that the third approach was a deliberate increase in federal presence through accelerated implementation of federal projects in the area. As at the time of filling this report, it was learnt that the PDP has largely encircled the ruling party in both Yobe and Borno states.