Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship Elections Appeals Committee, set up to review the Kogi and Bayelsa States’ governorship election primaries, has upheld the election of Mr. Musa Wada as the party’s candidate for the November 16 governorship election in Kogi State.
The report of the committee, which was sighted yesterday in Abuja, showed that the panel, chaired by the National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, undertook a comprehensive review of the petition brought before it by aspirants in the Kogi State’s governorship primary election.
According to the report, the committee received petitions from only two contestants, namely Senator Dino Melaye and Abubakar Ibrahim Idris, out of the 13 aspirants who contested in the primary.
No petition was received from any of the aspirants that contested in the Bayelsa State’s primary where Senator Douye Diri emerged as the party’s governorship candidate.
The committee stated that Melaye scored more than 70 votes that was recorded in his favour by the electoral committee as some of the votes declared as lost belonged to him, but was not enough to upset Wada’s winning votes.
In the case of Idris, the committee noted that contrary to the aspirant’s claims that extraneous ballot papers were used at the primary, all the ballot papers used were serially numbered and the declaration made by the electoral committee were in accordance with the serial numbers contained on the ballot papers.
Consequently, the PDP has submitted the name of Wada as its candidate for the November 16 governorship election in Kogi State to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The party also submitted to INEC, the name of a former Member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Samuel Bamidele Aro, as running mate to Wada.
A source in the party confirmed that Aro, who represented Yagba Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, was favoured as running mate after extensive consultation and accord by critical party stakeholders across Kogi State.
