Gubernatorial primaries in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states have all ended in controversies. It was expected that the judiciary would eventually determine the true candidates from the various parties. Especially with some parties facing direct expulsion over delegate list issues.
Most gubernatorial candidates are in tears over the conduct of the primary.
In Kogi State, Senator Smart Adeyemi, former Minister of State Labour Productivity, Professor Stephen Ocheni, son of the late former Governor Abubakar Audu Shuiabu, and Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, a member of the National Working Committee of the APC had condemned the conduct of the APC governorship primaries.
Adeyemi claimed no primaries were held in the state. He added that Usman Ododo, the APC standard bearer, was rigged to clinch the ticket. He further claimed that the election materials were the thumbprints of all local state leaders, which led to Ododo’s victory.
The Senator for Kogi West noted that all candidates for governorship were unable to vote because electoral materials were diverted from their wards.
An insider who spoke on the matter anonymously said the complaint filed by the applicant could pave the way for judicial redress.
The source said-
“A day before the primary election, a meeting was allegedly held between Bello, who is the leader of the party in the state and Governor Mohammed Matawalle, who is the Returning Officer, where the governor declared that Usman Ododo would be his candidate, and asked others to step down for him.
“And as it happened, people came out that Friday all over Kogi State and there was nothing to show that there was an election.
“There is going to be a legal tussle because a pre-action notice has been issued by Smart Adeyemi alleging that the whole exercise was a sham.”
The scenario is not different with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. A former Deputy Governor, Yomi Awoniyi, is faulting the primary election that produced Dino Melaye as the party’s governorship candidate.
Awoniyi warned that Melaye’s emergence as PDP governorship candidate was dangerous.
A similar scenario also played out in Bayelsa State. One of the leading governorship aspirants, Festus Daumiebi, rejected the results of the APC primary election.
Daumiebi, who also called for the cancellation of the outcome of the Friday primary, said the process was undermined. He stated that it was marred by irregularities, and heavily compromised by officials of the party.
Also rejecting the outcome of the primary election, another aspirant, David Lyon, described it as “irresponsible and criminal”.
In Imo State, factions of the LP held two parallel primary elections over the weekend.
While the Onyekwulisi Festus-led faction conducted its primary at Andreas Hotel along MCC Road, the other group, headed by a former National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Ukachukwu Awuzie, conducted its primaries at the Landmark Event Centre, all in Owerri area of Imo State.
The Abia State Governor-Elect, Alex Otti, was the returning officer and chairman of the electoral panel for the Awuzie-led faction.
The inability of the political parties to conduct acceptable primary elections have been linked to greed and the quest for power at all cost.
An Abuja-based lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, however, said legal tussle would continue to form part of the process with the action of politicians.
“The quest for power at all cost is responsible for why political parties can’t conduct an election that is generally acceptable by their members.
“Politicians are generally selfish by nature; they are not willing to play by the rules. You can see what is happening in Adamawa, where Binani fraudulently stole the mandate of the people, so it’s the same all over the place.
“I’m not optimistic that anything different would happen in those states, and I don’t think Nigeria would get it right because the political actors will continue not to act right, and once they don’t, you should not expect anything significant or positive to happen,” he said.
cc: Vanguard Ng
