Adamawa governorship primaries: PDP aspirant alleges manipulation of delegates

From Umar Dankano, Yola

The just-concluded Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), primaries for the coming governorship election in Adamawa state has generated mixed reactions, as some aspirants are accusing the party of manipulation of delegates during the conduct of the exercise.

While reacting, one of the aspirants, Dr. Umar Ardo, alleged that there was manipulation of delegates during the exercise, as according to him, ‘’the way and manner it was being conducted was totally against the party’s interest.’’

Mr. Ardo, who accused the national delegation conducting the election of incompetence, said he had never experienced such manner of conducting polls.

“You are abusing the sanctity of the open ballot box election,” Mr. Ardo told the delegation at the venue of the exercise.

‘’Can you imagine, even those that were not initial delegates were asked to vote in favour of a candidate?”

‘’Initially, local government chairmen, their deputies, members of the state Houses of Assembly and  other members of the House of Representatives that recently decamped to PDP were asked to vote for a particular candidate.

‘’It’s not good for our party, and believe me people will live to regret their action,’’ Ardo fumed.

Also complaining about the exercise, the former Special Adviser on Political Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak, criticised the delegation for allegedly handling the election in a shoddy manner. “The way this election is being conducting is totally strange in the history of our party,” Mr. Gulak said.

 ‘’It’s unfortunate the way and manner the whole charade was observed,’’ he further stated.

Reacting to the allegation, the team leader, Dimeji Bankole, said the election would continue as stipulated by the National Headquarters of the party.

Addressing the stakeholders before the commencement of the election, Mr. Bankole, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that the delegation was in the state to carry out one of the party’s fundamental assignments and assured the aspirants and members of the party of free and fair election in the interest of the ruling party.

“We are delegated from the party national headquarters to come to Adamawa and conduct gubernatorial primary election of our great party PDP.

” I want to use this opportunity to give assurance to all our party members and those that are contesting, that we are going to conduct this election without fear or favour.”

He urged all stakeholders to give the team maximum support and cooperation to enable it to conduct credible election. The Adamawa governorship election will hold on October 11, while the Acting Governor of Adamawa state, Ahmadu Fintiri, has emerged the PDP candidate for the election in the state.

Mr. Fintiri’s emergence was expected after eight of the aspirants who had withdrawn from the primary election declared support for him.