By Mson Fachir
Senator Gabriel Suswam has become really desperate in his bid to remain relevant even as it is clear that his ambition to become the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has hit a dead end.
Suswam is using the pursuit of a nonexistent chairmanship slot to cash out big from Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Alia wants to join PDP and he is bankrolling Suswam to take over the PDP structures in the state and hand to him, while Atiku also wants to run for president again in 2027 and sees the Benue PDP structures as one of the fertile grounds for his success. In the last one year, it is estimated that Governor Alia has given Suswam at least N8 billion to help him fight his legal battles and also take over PDP in Benue State.
Yesterday in Makurdi, Suswam assembled a group of misinformed supporters at the old state secretariat of PDP and lied to them as he has been doing lately, that the Ward, Local Government and State Congresses of the party in the state would not stand. Despite the fact that the National Working Committee of PDP has since approved all the PDP congresses in Benue State as conducted by the Napoleon Bali-led Caretaker State Working Committee before the expiration of its mandate, Suswam is still deceiving some gullible members of the party that he has the upper hand. Maybe whenever he says that, he refers to the rumoured new party that he, Atiku, Alia and others are considering should their bid to take over PDP fails.
The embattled former governor said the Acting National Chairman of the party Umar Damagum must step down on the 24th of October, 2024 and he would be announced as the new Chairman.
Suswam again rained insults on Damagum and other members of the National Working Committee of PDP, former Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and the entire G-5. It was a shameful outing by a man who is expected to adorn the regalia of a statesman, having been to the National Assembly three times and served as governor for two terms. But that is what desperation and frustration can cause a man.
At yesterday’s pseudo meeting, Suswam caught a forlorn figure. The likes of Senator Orker Jev, Mrs Margaret Icheen and a few other big names who were recently seen around him have seen the hopelessness in his wild goose chase and left him. They were not present at the meeting.
Suswam knows that he is running out of time with lies and he has resorted to barefaced insults and direct attacks against his opponents. What will he tell Alia after this week? What will he tell the few who are still following him?
Suswam has used his mouth and hands to cause his early retirement from politics. Even his Sankera people are no longer happy with him!
