Some presidential aspirants on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are plotting a fall-back option in the event they fail to get the ticket in the party’s primary election, investigations by Daily Trust have revealed.
Senate President Bukola Saraki, his predecessor David Mark, Senators Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Jonah Jang are all vying for the PDP presidential ticket.
But they have all obtained forms – through proxies – that will allow them return to the Senate if the presidential bid fails.
Governors Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto and Ibrahim Dankwambo, who are also aspiring for the presidency, are not leaving anything to chance as the former plots to retain his governorship seat, while the latter keeps a move to the Senate as option.
The PDP had in its latest time table fixed Sept 30 for primary elections into the Senate and House of Representatives and presidential primary for October 5 and 6.
The party’s presidential nomination forms cost N12m, while those for Senate cost N4m. The nominations forms for governorship cost N6m.
PDP walks tight rope
Already, sources at the PDP national secretariat hinted Daily Trust yesterday that the party was walking a tight rope following the emergence of more than 10 aspirants seeking the presidential ticket, thereby allowing some of them to buy other forms as fall-back options.
“It is a secret deal. Of course, politics is about interest and intrigues. So I can assure you that some of the aspirants will later get automatic tickets to retain their seats in the senate. So it is not strange, it is part of democracy,” one of the sources said.
Similarly, a high-ranking member of the PDP, Chief Sam Nkire, said “I heard of it but I don’t know specifically who and who bought forms for presidential, governorship and or senatorial race.
“However, that shows that the aspirants are not putting their eggs in one basket. It also shows that the aspirants themselves know that only one of them would emerge at the convention. So for me, it is an indication that all of them will work together after the primaries,” he said.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, did not respond to a text message sent to his mobile phone on the matter. (SaharaReporters)
