The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed that it supervised the primary election that produced Mohammad Abacha as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate in Kano State.
Before the clarification, there had been controversy over who the commission recognised as the gubernatorial candidate between Abacha and Sadiq Wali.
“As at the time the PDP primary was conducted in Kano, Shehu Sagagi was the one recognised by the law as the state chairman of the party, who conducted the primary that produced Abacha,” the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Riskuwa Shehu, told newsmen in Kano, yesterday.
However, Abacha and Wali emerged winners of two parallel PDP primaries in Kano, with each of them claiming to be the authentic candidate.
On the ongoing voter registration in Kano, the REC said there were 369,651 online applicants, while 380,582 have completed their registration.
IN Borno State, the party has passed a vote of no confidence in its Chairman, Zannah Gadama, who was suspended for a month by the seven-member State Working Committee (SWC).
Passing the no confidence vote in a communiqué, yesterday, in Maiduguri, the party’s legal adviser, Abdu Jidda, disclosed that Gadama’s deputy, Bunu Satomi, takes over the affairs of PDP in the state.
“The leadership of Gadama in the state has been compromised,” he said, describing the suspended chairman as a sell-out to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to him, the no confidence vote and suspension were based on the breach of the party’s 2017 constitution by not calling for meetings of the executives and stakeholders.
He added that there were allegations of misappropriation of party funds and anti-party activities under Gadama.
MEANWHILE, hearing on a suit seeking the disqualification of PDP governorship candidate in Taraba State, Kefas Agbu, has commenced at the Federal High Court, Jalingo.
The plaintiff, Prof. Jerome Nyameh, who contested the PDP governorship ticket, is seeking the disqualification of Agbu on the ground that the latter did not purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms.
The don wants the court, among other prayers, to restrain Agbu from contesting the governorship seat on the PDP platform in the 2023 polls.
Though the suit was adjourned till July 14, the presiding judge, Simone Amobeda, said processes in the matter had been filed. Describing pre-election suits as special matters, he said his court would accelerate hearings on the suit. (Guardian)
