The Zamfara state PDP Governorship candidate in the last primary election, Alhaji Hafiz Aliyu Mohammed said they decided to challenge the election of Dauda Lawal Dare in court as the party’s flag bearer so as to protect the integrity of the party.
Addressing Journalists in Gusau, Hafiz maitained that, the so-called election of Dauda Lawal Dare as the party’s flag bearer was characterised by series of irregularities which if left to go like that, would in the near future create serious problem for the party.
Acccording to him, if Dauda was left to contest the Governorship election in 2023 and eventually won, other parties that lost the election could challenge his candidature as PDP flag bearer because they were aware of the irregularities of the PDP’s primary election.
“You see, we have to act fast to protect our party the PDP to avoid losing the state simply because of our inability to conduct transparent and credible Governorship primary election”.
“We took the matter to court to address the issue right from the time we filed in our suit and I am pretty sure that this is the stand of majority of our party members across the state”.
“We will pursue the case to its logical conclusion no matter how long it will take so as to avoid wasted votes in the forth coming 2023 general elections”.
Some of the irregularities recorded during the PDP Governorship primary election acccording to Hafiz included the refusal of those who supervised the election to allow women participation in the whole process.
Acccording to him, no woman was given the chance to partake in the primary election which was contrary to the PDP’s primary election guidelines.
He stressed that, the PDP constitution stipulated that one woman must be among the three Delegates from each ward in the state who would elect a Governorship candidate.
He lamented however that, there was no single woman who was allowed to vote during the primary election.
Hafiz said, “There must be a woman in each of the 147 Wards in the state and there was supposed to be 147 women Representatives when the Governorship primary election was conducted but unfortunately none of them was seen at the venue of the election”.
“So this is a violation of our party constitution”.
Another irregularity discovered during the Governorship primary election acccording to Hafiz was the inclusion of the names of some people who were not PDP members in the voter register such as late Ibrahim Nabature Nahuche, Alhaji Maibuhu Gummi and Alhaji Bargaja Gummi.
“These people are APC members, as such, we don’t know how their names happened to be among the delegates who participated in the PDP primary election”.
He also pointed out that, some delegates were smuggled into the venue of the primary election, describing the whole exercise as “a kangaroo primary election designed to favor a particular candidate.
His words, “Even the delegates were chosen by the executive members of the party to participate in the stage managed Governorship primary election”.
“We will do our very best to put things in order before the 2023 general elections because we don’t want our party to lose the number one seat in Zamfara state”. Concluded Hafiz.
