By Hammed Salawu Minna
Opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Niger state, on Wednesday, postponed its governorship primary earlier slated to hold on Wednesday.
Signs of trouble started earlier at the state party Secretariat in Minna, when four of the five governorship aspirants began to protest the authenticity of the list of delegates to vote at the election.
When the situation became palpable, chairman of the electoral committee, who is the deputy governor of Bayelsa state, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, invited all the twenty five local government chairmen of the party to a closed door meeting with a view to finding a common ground.
After emerging from the meeting that lasted few meetings, Mr Ewhrudjakpo, told the media that the meeting has been shifted to allow for fresh start.
On whether the postponement has anything to do with the protest of the four contestants, he was non committal, and walked away.
Earlier, four aspirants; Hon Idris Sani Kutigi, Alhaji Isah Jankara, Abdulrahman Gimba, and Hon. Sidi Abdul, had insisted that they did not trust the authenticity of the delegates’ list.
They insisted that verifiable means of identification must be presented before delegates could vote.
As a result, means of identification; driver licence, voter cards, international passport,or NIN, that tally with the name on the delegates’ list, must be presented along with the list of delegates.
The party then announced that delegates should go back and present their means of identification against tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock.
Feelers gathered that the protest had to do with the rumoured endorsement of Alhaji Isah Liman Kantigi, as the preferred choice of the party, by the stakeholders and the state working committee of the party, ahead of the primary.
