Adamawa PDP Primaries: Governor Held Us Hostage – Panel
Adamawa State governor James Nggilari has come under fire over his alleged role in manipulating results of Adamawa Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state assembly primaries.
The chairman of the PDP electoral panel for the state, Ambassador Tim Ihemadu, has already sent a petition to the national leadership of the party alleging that members of the panel were held hostage by political thugs aided by close associates of the governor, including the suspended chairman of the party, Chief Joel Madaki.
In effect, the electoral panel for the primaries has disassociated itself from the elections, while declaring the results invalid; but some members of the state chapter of the party have declared the election hitch-free and credible, saying they accompanied the electoral panel with the results from the state to the PDP national secretariat in Abuja to forestall alleged plans to alter the authentic results.
Nonetheless, Ambassador Ihemadu disclosed in the petition to the national headquarters of the party that the panel members were forced to sign already computed results from all the local governments of the state.
They alleged that the whole exercise was fraught with irregularities, adding that they were constantly threatened, abused, harassed and even physically molested in the full glare of security operatives and held under house arrest from the day of their arrival in the state on Saturday to Monday when they departed the state by thugs suspected to be working for the suspended chairman of the party Chief Madaki, the suspended PDP state secretary Barr A. T. Shehu and the organising secretary of the party in the state.
According to the petition addressed to the PDP national chairman, Dr Adamu Mu’azu, and signed by Ihemadu and the panel’s secretary, Mrs. Victoria Nyam-Isha, “all the results were collated by the governor’s agents; we were ordered to sign the result sheets.”
He further said that they were escorted to the airport by security agents and officials of the state government, adding, “We boarded a chartered plan escorted by security agents and some government officials to Abuja.”
The committee, in its petition, stated: “We dissociate ourselves from the state Assembly election that purportedly took place in Adamawa State and disown the entire results purported produced by that exercise and pray the party to take note or do same.
“The so called election was conducted in an aspirant’s premises using a delegate list not known to the national secretariat of our party and supervised by a chairman and secretary under suspension by the party. This illegality should also be noted and addressed.
“The election committee was completely isolated from the so-called process and the materials used were obtained under duress and by threats to our lives and safety by thugs and high government officials alike.”
Meanwhile, the state organising secretary of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, who led the escort team that accompanied the Ihemadu-led panel to Abuja, affirmed to newsmen that there were plots to alter the results.
He said, “it is true that some people are trying to doctor the results of the election of the House of Assembly primaries of Adamawa State and they were even coming to Abuja with fake result sheets. They can’t succeed.
“We escorted the result sheets to the national secretariat to avoid any form of manipulation and the collating officers have certified that the results we came in with are authentic,” he said.
“They have accepted the results and, right now, we are waiting for the photocopy of the report because we are taking it back to the people of Adamawa so that they will be sure of what we did.
“Adamawa people know the kind of people we are fighting with; they are the ones that tampered with the delegate list and they are the same people that wrote names of the candidates from 25 House of Assembly constituencies that we have in the state and they brought it to the national secretariat but it was rejected. Those who tampered with the delegate list are the ones who came with the fake results.”
The stakeholders pleaded with the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party not to allow anybody to tamper with the authentic results they brought to Abuja in the interest of the party in the state.
“We have followed the process of submission and we are very sure that the same process is applicable in all the states,” they declared. “We are satisfied that the real results are escorted to Abuja here and we are praying that the NWC go with what the committee submitted. If they truly need the success of PDP in Adamawa State, let them allow the will of the people to prevail.”
11 APC Lagos governorship aspirants want direct primary
Meanwhile, about 11 APC governorship aspirants have written to the national leadership of the party, insisting on the adoption of direct primary to pick the party’s governorship candidate for the 2015 election. They have, therefore, rejected the indirect primary being mulled by the party.
In a letter to the party’s national chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and other members of the National Working Committee, the governorship contenders averred that the indirect primary was at variance with the electoral act.
The aspirants who signed the letter include Dr Leke Pitan, Dr Femi Hamzat, Senator Ganiyu Solomon, Hon Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Dr Tola Kasali, Mr Tokunbo Wahab and Mr Olasupo Shasore among others.
They pointed out that the party’s constitution states that the local governments shall be defined as listed in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution which, for Lagos State, is listed as 20 local governments.
They expressed concern that the conceived indirect primaries (as presently constituted) could lead to agitation, tension and litigation and may even ultimately deprive the party from presenting a valid candidate for the general election in February 2015.
To avert imminent crisis in the party, they recommended that the party leadership immediately review the scheduled indirect primaries scheduled to commence December 2 and particularly on December 4, 2014 – with a view to its suspension.
“Our party should seek special consideration to conduct direct primaries rather than the indirect delegate-based primaries and/or commence consensus building exercise amongst all aspirants in order to effect a smooth affirmation of candidates. We believe that both direct primaries and consensus building can be concluded within the INEC timetable,” they wrote.
Primaries: Senate, Reps extend recess till December 16
In order to allow lawmakers to go back to their states to prepare and participate in National Assembly primaries, the Senate and the House of Representatives have gone on break till December 16, 2014.
While the Senate made its announcement at the end of yesterday’s plenary, the House of Representatives announced its break through its clerk, Mohammed Sani-Omolori.
The statement by Omolori said the extension was to allow House members participate in the forthcoming primaries of their political parties.
The House was originally scheduled to reconvene today, December 3, after it went on break on October 28.
Part of the notice of postponement reads: “The Leadership of the House of Representatives took note of the adjustment in the calendar of the political parties and took the decision for the postponement to allow members of the House to participate in the forthcoming primaries of their political parties.”
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