Gombe 2019: Southern Gombe protest marginalization by North Central 

The indigenous people of Southern Gombe State have staged a peaceful protest demanding that they be allowed to produce the next Governor of the State that has eluded them, 22 years after the creation of the State.

Presenting the protest letter to the State Governor, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo who was represented by the SSG, Mr. James Pisagih at the Government House, the President of Gombe South Progressive Forum, Abubakar Bello Reme, said sixteen years after supporting the cause of the PDP without producing even a Minister, it is now time they produce the next Governor of the State.

According to him, the eight years enjoyed by the central zone and the almost twelve years of the northern zone respectively piloting the affairs of the State is enough for them to allow someone from the South to occupy the coveted seat for inclusiveness, harmony and peaceful coexistence.

He said, “after all, power shift/rotation is enshrined in the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party, the ruling party in the State, and therefore it should be respected at all levels”.

The protesters told the Governor that among the three aspirants from Gombe south, Engineer Abubakar Musa Bappa, Alhaji Alhassan Muhammad Fawu and General Sylvester Audu (rtd), Dankwambo should find one of them worthy to succeed him.

They tasked Dankwambo to fulfill his promise of influencing a power shift to the South saying, “we believe that with clear sense of honesty, you will indeed fulfill your promise in influencing the opportunity of Gombe South to assume the Governorship seat in 2019.”.

They also reminded him that he had severally reiterated his commitment to and concern in ensuring that the Gombe State Governorship election, as a means of balancing the scale of representation of a more higher position like the coveted seat of Executive Governor, which should be concurred, is not the exclusive reserve of only some zones.

“We in Southern Gombe collectively believe that it should be our turn now, simply for political pragmatism, good understanding, unity and peace’, the forum stressed.