Northern Regional Minister Not Interested In Damango Seat

Northern Region Minister Mohammed Muniru Limina has denied declaring plans to contest the Damango parliamentary seat in the 2016 elections.

He has also denied breaching Article 43 of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) constitution which bars party members from campaigning until the opening of nominations for potential candidates.

“I have not campaigned…I have not campaigned. I am a Regional Minister for the Northern Region and I have every right to do my official business…but I have not gone anywhere to campaign,” he argued.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Damango, Adam Mutawakilu is planning to drag the Regional Minister before the executives of the party for allegedly campaigning to contest his seat in the party’s Parliamentary primaries.

The MP is alleging that the Minister made his intentions known when he visited the constituency over the weekend and met with some constituency executives.

He is asking for the Minister must be appropriately sanctioned.

Denying these allegations on Eyewitness News, Alhaji Limina admitted visiting Damango to meet with the constituency executives after taking part in the National Sanitation Day (NSD) exercise.

He recalled interacting with the constituency executives “and some of them wanted to know whether if I had the opportunity, will I want to come back and I said yes, I would want to come back when the time comes but I have not gone round to campaign.”

Alhaji Limina was however quick to clarify that his actions do not amount breaching the NDC’s constitution and further asked, “even if I told somebody, don’t I have the right to speak?”

Asked whether he intends to contest the parliamentary primaries of the NDC in the area, the Regional Minister said: “When we get there, we will take decisions.”

Damango MP at fault
The Northern Regional Minister faulted the sitting MP for discussing internal party issues with the media without first seeking redress with the leadership of the NDC.

“We don’t run the party in the media so if he thinks I have done anything that he is not happy with, he could have called me to find out as a colleague or report to the structures for them to look at it,” he remarked.

He added that the NDC is a party which has standards of communication, a constitution and rules, therefore, “he should go to the party for the party to call me then we discuss this issue because these are internal issues.”