The Gubernatorial primaries of the People Democratic Party (PDP) in Niger State earlier scheduled to hold on Wednesday has been postponed following a protest by four of the five aspirants participating in the exercise
Tensions began to brew when four of the five aspirants expressed their distrust for delegates list who were to vote at the election.
The aggrieved aspirants alleged that the original delegates list Was tampered with and the elections were about to be rigged.
Details of the protest was connected to insinuations regarding the endorsement of one of the contestants, Alhaji Isah Liman Kantigi, as the preferred aspirant of the party, by the stakeholders and the state working committee of the party before the primary.
As tension hightens some aspirants walked out of the venue. This made the Chairman of the Niger State PDP Electoral Committee and Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, to invite the party Chairmen from the 25 local government for a closed door meeting which lasted only a few minutes to reach a common agreement and Mr Ewhrudjakpo, announced the postponement.
Four of the five aspirants; Idris Sani Kutigi, Alhaji Abdullahi Isah Jankara, Barrister Abdulrahman Gimba, and Sidi Abdul, were said to have insisted that they did not trust the authenticity of the delegates’ list, asking the electoral committee to ask delegates to present verifiable means of identification before they should be allowed to vote.
It was resolved that each delegate would have to present a means of national identification such as voter’s card or National Identity Card at the venue to authenticate their names in the delegates list.
The election will be held on Thursday 26th May 2022 by 9:00am.https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-admin/post.php?post=197968&action=edit#
The Peoples Deocratic Party, PDP, had been the ruling party in Niger State since the return of Democratic Governance in 1999 until the party lost power to the All Progressives Congress with incumbent Governor, Abubakar Sanni-Bello, who is in his Second term.
The Party is seeking to return to power in 2023 just as it is trying at the Federal Level.
