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The re-run adhoc
delegates elections ordered to be held by the national headquarters of
the PDP, after the cancellation of the December 28 ward congresses, has
ended in more controversy.

Some of the
governorship aspirants, Ardo Umar Kojolli, Joel Madaki, and Senator
Jubril Aminu expressed dissatisfaction with the re-run ward congress,
stating that there was nowhere in the state where ward elections took
place. The politicians described the re-run congresses as “worst than
the first.”

The aspirants
complained that most of the returning officers sent out by the
government were advisers and commissioners of the state governor,
Murtala Nyako’s administration.

“Unfortunately,
from the reports coming throughout the local government areas, no such
elections were held in virtually everywhere. We have several INEC
electoral officers in the various local governments that corroborated
our position,” Mr. Ardo said on behalf of the aggrieved aspirants.

They said since the
indirect option have failed, they want the national headquarters of the
party to order the use of the direct option, popularly known as option
A4, as a way out of the ward congress imbroglio.

According to Messrs
Ardo and Madaki, the re-peat congresse was the worst election ever
conducted in the state, and urged the party headquarters to disqualify
Mr. Nyako, whom they said had “become too partisan himself as a
candidate to allow any credible elections to be held in the state.”

Mr. Aminu, the
senator representing Adamawa central senatorial district and chairman
of the Senate committee on foreign affairs, also joined the call for
Mr. Nyako to be disqualified.

“Mr. Nyako, as the
leader of the party, should be held to account for this kind of thing.
If what we saw last week can be described as absurd, then this is an
outrage. At least the Adamawa people should be treated with some
respect. The officials responsible for these kind of things should be
disqualified,” Mr. Aminu said.

Faulting the ‘charade’

Mr. Aminu said if
the national headquarters of the party wanted to give Mr. Nyako the
ticket, they should go ahead rather than organise this “charade.”

“This is a slap on the face. If you are going to organise a re-run election, then you have got to organise it better,” he said.

He, therefore,
called on the leadership of the party to conduct a repeat congress,
saying if this is impossible, the party should consider upholding the
December 28th ward delegates elections which he described as “nearest
to a true reflection of a congress.”

However, Mai Adamu
Mustapha, leader of the election monitoring panel to Adamawa State,
said the re-run ward congress was conducted peacefully and devoid of
any hostilities. Mr. Mustapha said his panel was satisfied with the
congress which, he noted, was “credible, free and fair.”

He said anybody with complaints over the conduct of the re-run exercise “only wants to be mischievous.”

Both Buba Marwa and
Mr. Nyako each have different results sheets of the last congress,
which they want the national headquarters to authenticate.

NEXT gathered that the suspension of the Adamawa ward congress was
in part due to the confusion between which of the two result sheets it
had to authenticate. Both Nyako and Marwa expressed satisfaction with
the congress.