Councillorship primaries: Crisis mars Lalong’s LG

From Ado Abubakar Musa, Jos

The just conducted local government primary elections of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Plateau state has resulted into serious crisis and resentment among members of the party, particularly in Shendam LG from where Governor Simon Bako Lalong hails.
This is coming when reports from Kanam, Jos South, Jos East, among others, revealed that the exercises were marred with allegations of impositions of certain candidates chosen by party officials.
Our correspondent reports that elections in some area were suspended due to disagreement among party members.
According to a member of the party and chairman of Polling Unit 012 in Yelwa East ward of Shendam LG, Jamilu Kabiru, “the party chairman of Shendam LG, Auwal Hamza is the cause of the crises that rocked the party in yelwa and indeed other three wards. That is Shendam “B” ward, Kwapkilik ward and Yelwa west which were earlier suspended for security reason, according to the LG party chairman.”
He said in Yelwa East for example, Auwal single handedly shifted the primaries to the party’s headquarters in Shendam and conducted verbal primary which was participated by one aspirant which according to him was contrary to the stated guidelines of the APC, adding that the decision to move primaries to Shendam without due process was done for hidden objectives.
But when contacted, the party chairman of Shendam LG, who was accused of manipulating the processes, confirmed that only one aspirant participated in the primaries but that the other aspirant left and that “It was shifted due to security reports and measures have to be taken before things got out of hands.”
Sources from Yelwa community however revealed that the current situation if not swiftly handled, would undoubtedly affect the ruling party in Yelwa and other areas affected in the February 18th next year.
Our correspondent further gathered that should candidates be imposed in Yelwa, the opposition PDP would definitely win the elections as this has been the principle of Yelwa residents.