Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia
The Majority Leader of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Umaru Tanko Tunga, and the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Aliyu Turaki, last Tuesday narrowly escaped death during the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Awe Local Government Area of the state.
The primary election in Awe LGA was to produce the chairmanship candidate for the local council in the October 6, 2021, local council election in the state.
The duo escaped death by the whiskers following a fierce clash between supporters of the camp of a leading chairmanship aspirants, Umaru Tanko Dan Al-Kano, and the camp of Usman Umaru, who both accused each other of plotting to rigged the primary election.
An aide to the immediate-past Chairman of the local government area, who is the leading contender for the primary election, Yusuf Dogara, alleged that the state Assembly Majority Leader and the state Commissioner for Local Government had hijacked the process of the exercise in their attempt to rig and impose their preferred candidate against the wishes of majority of the electorate.
According to Dogara, “Umaru Tanko Tunga and Turaki used their position to move the primary election from Awe to Lafia, and according to election time table, the primary was supposed to end on July 27, 2021, anything beyond yesterday is not an election.”
Dogara, while speaking to journalists, further alleged that the two politicians succeeded in illegally shifting the election to Lafia, the state capital, as against the electoral guidelines issued by the state Independent Electoral Commission.
However, all efforts to reach the state Assembly Majority Leader on the alleged plot proved abortive as he neither picked nor respond to calls or text messages sent to his phone as at the time of filling the report.
