KADUNA PDP CHIEFTAIN SLAMS EL-RUFAI, OSHIOMHOLE OVER COMMENTS..

“The National Chairman of the APC, as far as I am concerned, does not speak like a statesman but instead, like a unionist up till now. Even his language and behavior does not indicate his position as he has not settled down to know that he has crossed a line, whereby, by rights, he is supposed to be a statesman that should chose his words”…. Hassan Felix Hyat, Kaduna state PDP Chairman.

“I don’t believe that the so-called announced outcome of the results is what really happened, because, from all indications, we have it from very strong reports and from our various polling units that we won the elections”.

“The calibre of people in the PDP do not have authority over the security agencies and, it is a known fact that the well armed security agencies were going round from one election centre to the other and anywhere they found out that the APC had been delivered a political blow, they interfered with the result sheets and you can see that these things happened both at the Presidential and gubernatorial elections”.

“When you are talking of people like Sani Sidi, we won Kagarko Local government. So, his departure from the party did not affect us in any way because we won in his local government. His departure or comments was just a political gimmick normally used by politicians to stake claims of being regarded as “heavyweights”. I don’t see the “weight” there”.

 

The Kaduna state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Felix Hassan Hyat has reacted to weighty allegations in the public domain that some leaders of the PDP were deeply compromised during the just concluded general elections conducted in the state.

Honourable Hyat while debunking these allegations during a chat with Naij News Alert, noted that, there is no election that will not have accusations and counter accusations. It is a normal process. But, if you look at how the elections took place, you will find out that it was an issue of using security agencies to change the results at the collation centres.

“One cannot say that our stakeholders betrayed the party. Rather, the activities of INEC, together with security agencies of snatching results and changing results. There was bias by INEC and the security agencies. What would our stakeholders have done? Imagine somebody who is in power and state resources and apparatus of government are being used to obtain the will of the people”.

“So, I don’t believe that the so-called announced outcome of the results is what really happened, because, from all indications, we have it from very strong reports and from our various polling units that we won the elections”, he stated.

Responding to inquiries as to the possibility of the results being tampered with despite the presence of strong personalities within the PDP, Hyat, a well respected political figure in Kaduna state and the PDP family, stressed that politicians within the party are persons with respect from the grassroots and the grassroots gave us the votes.

According to Hyat, who enjoys huge respects from his constituents, noted that “the calibre of people in the PDP do not have authority over the security agencies and, it is a known fact that the well armed security agencies were going round from one election centre to the other and anywhere they found out that the APC had been delivered a political blow, they interfered with the result sheets and you can see that these things happened both at the Presidential and gubernatorial elections”.

“Look at the issue of Kaduna South in particular; Makera Constituency, everybody knows how all these things were done. Also, look at Lere Local Government where soldiers were used to intimidate and harass voters. Same thing applied to Kagarko and Sanga Local government also”.

“You can say that the whole of Kaduna Central was just taken over by armed security people on the pretence that they were going to provide security whereas they were answerable to government and were used at the Collation Centres and we also have instances whereby, even the selection of Returning Officers by INEC was purely, between the INEC and the Government House in Kaduna”.

Hassan Hyat revealed an instance of a Professor in Zaria who was “openly told that his name would not be included because he is PDP”. We have all of this information at our disposal.

On the allegations that some PDP chieftains clandestinely supported the All Progressive Congress including the last minute defections from his party, particularly in the case of Mallam Sani Sidi, the former DG of NEMA and the likely effects on the party with just few days to go to the governorship elections, Hyat stressed that, “if we had lost election at the Polling Unit, then you can say that there was internal wrangling that deprived us of our victory. But, if we won at the Units and the results are changed by armed security men in collusion with the INEC officials, then, I do not see any internal wrangling”.

“When you are talking of people like Sani Sidi, we won Kagarko Local government. So, his departure from the party did not affect us in any way because we won in his local government. The fact that he came out to contest the governorship ticket under Kaduna South and we know that he is from Kagarko and he was in Kagarko during the elections and we won there, it simply means that his departure or comments was just a political gimmick  normally used by politicians to stake claims of being regarded as “heavyweights”. I don’t see the “weight” there”.

The PDP leader reiterated that going by INEC guidelines and rules, votes and results ought to have been counted and announced at the Polling units but sadly, that was not the scenario.

“That is an act of illegality. We know that by INEC Guidelines also, there were provisions and this was made clear that “votes should be counted, announced and placed on the wall” for everybody to see. This was not followed. INEC gave the guidelines but refused to follow the guidelines themselves. If they had followed the guidelines, no security agencies would have had opportunity of changing the results”.

“As a party in Kaduna state, we faced an election where we thought we were going to contest against the APC but we ended up going into an election against APC, Government, INEC and security agencies on one side against us (PDP)”, the Kaduna state PDP chairman said.

“The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is contesting this in Court because, we know we were deprived of our victory”, Honourable Hyat insisted.

Reacting to the insecurity situation in Kajuru Local Government where so many lives have been reportedly lost this year and many forced to live in Internally Displaced Camps, IDP’s amid fears for their lives and safety, the PDP chairman in the state stressed on the sensitiveness of the issue.   

“You see, this is a very sensitive issue that, when you start talking, some people will bring politics into it. The issue of security is a very serious one; a very dangerous issue. As far as I am concerned the government is handling it badly”, he stated.

“I listened to AIT’s chat with Mark Jacobs and the daughter of the Chairman of the Adara Development Association, ADA. There is no way where, in a conflict where there are two sides and all the leaders of only one side are arrested while the leaders from the other side have not even been cautioned. Then, people are asking; what is really happening?

“Looking at it all, the genesis was when a Fulani man wanted to rape an Adara woman some few years. When he was apprehended, it became a community tussle. So, who started it? Since this started, the governor has not found it necessary to bring all aggrieved persons including all the religious leaders together and really work on them as to how it all happened and apportion blames where necessary”, he disclosed.

“The latest crisis which is the one that occurred before the elections started in the Adara community which, according to the reports stated that the people of Adara were attacked and between 10 and 11 people were reported to have been killed. The governor did not take any action. So, the people reportedly went on reprisal and it was after they had gone on reprisals that the governor came out to say “66 Fulani people were killed”. Why did he decide to name Fulani? He didn’t say 66 people; if he had said 66 people, the people would have come out to say let us look into it. But when he said it was Fulani, it was aimed at stoking the embers”.

“It was the same governor that had come to say before now, the crises in Southern Kaduna, “the Fulani people will never forget and forgive”. That is not leadership”

“If you know that the people are like that, why did you come out to tell the whole world that Fulani people were the people that were killed? You are more or less, inviting them to come out and attack knowing that is known of them. That is the spirit of unforgiveness”, Hyat fumed.

He condemned the statement of the Kaduna state governor noting that it was not right for a whole governor to come out and tell people that the Fulani people are unforgiving people.

“I don’t think it is right to say that the Fulani people are not unforgiving people. I have stayed with Fulani people and I also have close friends who are Fulani and we do offend each other. In Southern Kaduna, we have fulanis that have been staying with us. We grew up to know that they are Fulani. When some of them speak the dialect; the languages of the people of Southern Kaduna you will never believe that they are Fulani people. They inter-marry. So, which Fulani people are you referring to? This is the question. Is it the Fulani people that we grew up and schooled together with or, is it the Fulani people that, up till today, we work together with? If they had been arresting the Fulani people, we will know who they are. You may even find out that it could not even be the people that we have been staying together with and, you must also remember that the Governor said that these were people that came from outside the country”.

So, we cannot have a headway in this manner, he stated.

“Now, with the governor setting up a committee but you now have the people incarcerated, how will you be able to resolve the issue? Who is going to speak on behalf of the people? If only one side of the people have been arrested, where is the peace move that you are making? It simply means that there is no peace at all. Whatever report that the committee comes with, the people will not have confidence in it at all because, it is already, a one sided show”.

He advised the governor to call the Fulani members and the Adara leaders and go on an agreement on how to resolve it all and to draw a line and allow bygone be bygone. Let us start a new life.

Personally, my opinion is that the government who had earlier made that situation known, is supposed to be working along that angle and should not be talking about Fulani against Adara or any other tribe in Southern Kaduna because, it is this issue that is making it look religious as far as I am concerned.

Speaking on the comments of the APC National Chairman, Adams Aliu Oshiomhole directives to members of the National Assembly to ensure that his party has total control of the NASS especially as it relates to Committees, Hassan Hyat said:

“Well, you know the National Chairman of the APC, as far as I am concerned, does not speak like a statesman but instead, like a unionist up till now. Even his language and behavior does not indicate his position as he has not settled down to know that he has crossed a line, whereby, by rights, he is supposed to be a statesman that should chose his words”.

“If he feels because he is in government and that he wants to control everything, he can go ahead and let us see the outcome and results of such a control. You are talking of peace and integration, why are you also telling people to keep off. The resources belong to the whole country and not the resources of the APC and neither is it the resources of the PDP”.

“If the PDP was in government for good 16yrs and you are just in power for only four years, there is need for them to go back and see how the PDP was able to remain in office for 16yrs. In just how many years in office, the APC is finding it very difficult to cross the line and have to resort to making use of security agencies to snatch ballot boxes and to kill people for you to declare your candidates as winners”.

“For me, if they have to say that because they have declared that they are the majority, if the majority says that they will do without the minority, it means that there will always be crises. There are times that they will need the minority whether they like it or not; how will they do it? You are talking of cohesion in the country; the PDP as a party believes in national unity and has its strategy”.

“The APC does not believe in national unity and that is why the national Chairman is making all this type of statement. It is very unfortunate”.

“The PDP is very concerned about the growth of the country. We will prefer maintaining the position of opposition to checkmate the excesses of the government as the government knows that it has a lot of lapses which is why it is always falling back on security agencies in order to continue to remain afloat but, in that case, for how long will you continue to do so”.

“I will advise Oshiomhole to caution himself. I listened to him on television where he said their performance this year is greater than 2015 because he has more members in the National Assembly and the President. What about the governors; does he have more governors today? The answer is no, because the governors that we have now in the North, are more than what we had in the last dispensation when we had only two governors in the north. But, today, the PDP has Taraba, Bauchi, Adamawa, Benue and Sokoto states. By the grace of God, if there is justice, we are going to have Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara states. So, what is his yardstick for gauging his performance?

“If he must know, he has run the party (APC) backwards and even the crises in the party (APC) are only escalating. How he intends to resolve that alone, I don’t know”.

“However, I can tell you without any form of contradiction that the APC Chairman is not a statesman and he is not somebody who should occupy such an office”.

Tasked to react to the recent comments of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu where the APC chieftain spoke against the purported plan by the Federal Government to review the Value Added Tax form its current 10% upwards, Hyat, a former Minister of State for Aviation said:

“It is simple! It will affect his businesses. He is worried about himself but I am happy that he said it because, that is their government position. It is not because of his love for the country”.

He expressed his disappointment on hearing recent comments accredited to Vice President, Pro. Yemi Osinbajo as it relates to Tinubu.

“This is the Vice President who, sometime ago made a nasty comment when late DSP Alamesiegha was being received by the people of Bayelsa state, saying that “it was a disgrace that people are celebrating criminals and thieves”. He should know the history of Tinubu even before he became Governor of Lagos state in 1999. Can he (Osinbajo) now, as a Pastor and leader say that the wealth of Tinubu today, can be said to have been legally amassed? Everybody knows of it and I know that the National Secretary of Afenifere made some releases about the “Man called Tinubu”.

“People should know that the society is aware of a lot of things and can no longer be lead by their noses anymore because you occupy a position. The control by Tinubu of media organizations does not imply that he has the final say as I know very well that there is a limit to all of these things”.

“When there is a change, new pages are opened in the history of Nigeria, I hope and pray he would still be alive to hear what people will say about him, Osibanjo”, he concluded.

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