LG bye-election: Lawmakers vows PDP will clinch Jaba LGA

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

A former member of House of Representatives who represented Jaba/Zango Federal Constituency, Honourable Godfrey Gaiya, has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will win the forthcoming bye-election in Jaba Local Government Area, even if the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), appoints Governor Nasir el-Rufai as returning officer.
He stated this while speaking to the media in Kaduna yesterday, where he said the cancellation of the May 12, 2018 local government election in the area was a plot to stop PDP from emerging victorious.
He further argued that the election was conducted peacefully in all wards in the Local Government Council, alleging that when the APC leadership in the area saw that they were losing grounds, they deceived Governor El-Rufai that there is crisis in the land, leading to the cancellation of the election.
Speaking in the same vein, the member representing Jaba Constituency in Kaduna State House of Assembly, Honorable Obadiah Bako, said he personally monitored the election in the local government and discovered that elections were held peacefully in all the wards except Sabchem ward, where APC youth snatched some boxes but were apprehended and taken to the police.
According to him, he was surprised to be informed later that the election had been cancelled in Jaba Local Government Area, maintaining that Jaba people are peace loving and what APC did was to raise false alarm of crisis to pave way for them to capture the area.
In his remarks, the candidate of the PDP in Jaba Local Government Area, Philip Gwada, revealed that they are battle ready for the bye-election and that they have engaged in a thorough grassroots campaign where the people have assured them of victory.
Gwada also alleged that the cancellation of the May 12 elections in the area is a game plan by APC to win, seeing that they are fast losing. He therefore appealed to the entire people of Jaba Local Government Area to come out in mass and participate in the rescheduled election.