APC & PDP FLAG-BEARER ANOINTED BY GOVERNOR ISAH YUGUDA Read This Article fom Vanguard News Paper of Saturday,20th December. 2014 Head or tail, it’s Yuguda in Bauchi The governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who emerged from the recent primaries are alleged to be scions of the outgoing governor of the state, Alhaji Isa Yuguda. Whatever happens, Yuguda could have peace out of office By Susan Edeh THe results came as a shock to many political stakeholders as the two candidates who emerged from the recent governorship primaries easily beat more formidable aspirants in the results announced by the two parties. Many of the aspirants were quick to dismiss the conduct of the primaries as lacking in fairness and deficient in electoral standards. Barrister Mohammed Abubakar won the gubernatorial election conducted by APC with 936 votes , former Minister of Police Affairs, Dr Yakubu Lame scored 806 votes, Mai Tama Tuggar scored 526, Engr Sadiq 194, Ibrahim Zailani 161 and Nuhu Gidado 86. In the PDP, Auwal Jutua a former speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly and member representing Zaki federal Constituency in the House of Representatives polled a total votes of 368 votes to beat former deputy governor Senator Garba Gamawa representing Bauchi North who scored 116 votes and former minister of State for Health Professor Ali Pate who scored 86 and Senator Adamu Gumba representing Bauchi South who got 3 votes. Favourable candidates There is tension in both major political parties given the allegation that Governor Yuguda got himself involved in the process in the two parties to throw up favaourable candidates to succeed him. An APC gubernatorial aspirant Dr Yakubu Lame called on the national headquarters of the party to cancel the primary election conducted in the state due what he alleged to be irregularities that marred the election. Dr Lame, a former minister of police affairs, alleged that the election was marred with over voting, disorderly conduct, harassment of officials as well as electricity failure. According to him “2,854 delegates were accredited during the election but at the end of the day 2,865 votes were cast which means there were excess of 41 votes”. “The procedure of conducting the primary election was discussed between all aspirants, the party leadership and the electoral committee but unfortunately all these issues were violated while some delegates were refused accreditation” “Some of the delegates that came were refused accreditation” he said as he cited the case of Ganjunwa Local government area where several delegates were not allowed to vote. “They was also selective implementation of court order during the House of Assembly primary election, concerning Bauchi LGA .” according to him, while the court order was complied with in that delegates from Bauchi LGA were stopped from voting during the House of Assembly primaries, the same court order was partially violated during the gubernatorial primaries as some wards were allowed to vote and others were not. The situation was not different in the PDP where the former speaker of the House of Assembly created a major upset in winning the primary against all expectations. Another twist to the PDP governorship primaries was that most of the governorship aspirants either stepped down or refused to show up during the election. Signs of problems emerged when one of the major contestants Yayale Ahmed, former Secretary to the Federal Government did not show up on the day of the election while another contestant Aliyu Hamayo, the immediate past SSG withdrew at the last minute. Contenders like Yayale who were considered to be supported by PDP National Chairman Adamu Mu’azu had made it clear that they would not dance to the governor’s tune. Indeed, Jutua’s emergence came as a surprise because many expected Pate, a more experienced technocrat to get the ticket. According to a source who pleaded anonymity said that Governor Yuguda perfected the moved to bring Jatua, considered a political neophyte in order to check mate more experienced politicians in order to gain control of the party. “What played out in the governorship primary election is the hand work of the leader of the party, Governor Isa Yuguda who has already anointed who he wants to become the next governor of the state “ A political analyst, Kabiru Ibrahim expressed disappointment with the turn out of the governorship primaries, saying the result lacked justice and transparency. This is even as the Campaign Organization of Dr. Pate, has called for the cancellation of the exercise pointing out that the party will not deliver the state in the February 2015 elections. Returning officer for Pate at the gubernatorial primaries, Danlami Danfulani alleged that the PDP machinery in the state hijacked the primaries election and forced the Senator Stella Omu led panel saddled by the national headquarters of the party to officiate the exercise. “Unfortunately, the lady that came to Bauchi to conduct the PDP gubernatorial primaries was over- powered by the PDP leader in the state and party executives such that one person could write ballot papers for 10 – 20 delegates and put them into the ballot box. A chieftain of the APC, Buba Sarki alleged that the two governorship candidates of the PDP and APC are the anointed of Governor Isa Yuguda. —
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 10:43:58 +0000
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