Laleye Dipo in Minna
Ahead of Saturday’s primary election for the nomination of candidates to fly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag in the Niger State House of Assembly election in 2019, eight aspirants have already being returned unopposed for the contest.
Two of those returned unopposed were former lawmakers, who lost their seats in the 2015 election, while one was a local government chairman.
The eight will now slug it out with the yet to emerge candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties in Wushishi, Mashegu, Katcha, Mariga Edati, Bida I, Kontagora IU and Lavun House of Assembly constituencies.
The state House of Assembly is presently composed of 27 members, made up of 26 APC lawmakers and one PDP.
The state Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Tanko Beji, said Saturday after the screening and clearance of 61 aspirants, among them three women for the primary election, that everything to ensure “a free and fair election” had been put in place.
Beji disclosed that the delegates to elect the candidates had been put in place, adding that he was sure that at the end of the shadow election, all the contestants would go home “smiling”.
He said he was sure that with the calibre of the contestants and their “acceptability” by the people “in general terms, our party will emerge victorious at the 2019 elections”.
Beji declared: “We are set to reclaim the political leadership of our state we lost to the APC because of our own mistakes we will not repeat the mistake.”
The screening of the aspirants was carried out by a five-man committee headed by a former Minister of Aviation, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda, with Mr Sunday Zoaka as secretary.
