A gubernatorial primary election took place recently in Sokoto, organised by the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Governor Aliyu Wamakko emerged the party's standard-bearer. Bello Gusau chronicles how the governor won the ticket and the reactions arising from his victory.The contest for the gubernatorial ticket of the Sokoto State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was decided on 17 December, at the main bowl of the famous Kangiwa Memorial Stadium. There, Governor Aliyu Wamakko won the party's mandate by scoring the entire valid votes cast by delegates during the primary election. His two opponents in the election, Senator Umar Gada, and former Minister of Sports, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman, scored no votes during the exercise.The exercise was a product of concerted effort by the national headquarters of the party to organise a primary that will be fair to all the parties concerned and stakeholders in the state. Consequently, the party national headquarters constituted a special panel, led by Mr Tony Akachukwu, for the conduct of wards congress, with the aim of electing three delegates from the 244 wards in the state. The panel arrived the state on Friday, 9 December, for the exercise, which was scheduled for Saturday, 10 December.On the day of the exercise, the panel met with the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the party as well as other stakeholders with a view to ensuring a hitch-free primary. In his speech, the leader of the panel said the presence of the panel in the state was to oversee the election of delegates for the party's gubernatorial primary, as a result of the PDP's determination to ensure level-playing field among the three personalities who were aspiring for the party's ticket.'As you are aware, three of our brothers, namely Governor Wamakko, Senator Gada and Alhaji Suleiman have indicated their interest to vie for the ticket of our great party and these three personalities are illustrious sons of Sokoto State. You should, therefore, not do anything that will be against the constitution of the PDP in electing delegates for the primaries,' he told the state PDP members.He reminded them that the delegates to be elected during the wards congress were those who would come together on 17 December to elect the party's state standard-bearer, while he cautioned those to take part in the exercise, who included one chairman for each of the three senatorial districts as well as 23 chairmen for the 23 local government areas of the state, to exercise the fear of God in the discharge of the duty assigned to them, saying 'You should guard against filling the result sheets to be given to you by yourselves either in the privacy of your rooms or even beer parlour, as doing so will not be in the interest of the party. If you write names of delegates by yourselves, you will only be deceiving yourselves'.The panel chairman also cautioned them against mutilating result sheets, warning that the number of the sheets were commensurate with the number of wards in the state which left the committees with no room for any replacement. He said this was because the beauty of democracy was that people would live with what they got, and as such, warned the committee chairmen against allowing themselves to be confused or derailed, reminding them that their opponents in other parties were watching their actions.Afterwards, the chairman distributed the result sheets according to the senatorial districts, beginning with those which were far away. Later, the panel completed its assignment after the election of delegates whose conduct was peaceful throughout the state.Again, the PDP national headquarters sent another five-man team led by the minister of state for education, Chief Nyesum Wike Ezenwo, to conduct the 17 December gubernatorial primary. The team stormed the state on Friday, 16 December, and started series of meetings with heads of security agencies in the state, canvassing for their support towards a peaceful conduct of the exercise.During the team's visit to the state Commissioner of Police, Nyesum began by showing the CP the appointment letter given to the chairman and members of the team by the PDP national headquarters, which stated the team's mandate to conduct the Sokoto PDP gubernatorial primary.He said the team would call the three gubernatorial aspirants and all stakeholders in the PDP election to a meeting later in the evening of that day with a view to arriving at ways that would make the exercise a huge success. He appealed to the CP to assist the team towards the realisation of its mission of conducting a hitch-free primaries election.Responding, the Sokoto CP, Baba Adisa Bolanta, assured the team of the readiness of the state police command to see to the peaceful conduct of the exercise. He told him that Sokoto was peaceful and that even the recently-conducted PDP wards congress was without any hitch, saying the officers and men of the command would do all that was required to maintain peace during the exercise.While at the Sokoto headquarters of State Security Service (SSS), the team leader also solicited for the cooperation of the department towards the successful conduct of the exercise. He also showed him the team's letter of appointment from the party's national headquarters.In his response, the SSS director, Sokoto, Alhaji Jibrin Dan'malam, said the department had the responsibility to secure the environment in which it operates. He expressed the readiness of the service to collaborate with other security agencies in the state so as to ensure a hitch-free PDP primaries in the state.Dan'malam said the men of the department would leave no stone unturned in assisting the team to succeed in its assignment. After that, members of the team moved to the state secretariat of the PDP where the party's executive committee, led by the Sokoto PDP chairman, Alhaji Tukur Wazirin Bodinga, received them.Chief Ezenwo showed them the team's appointment letter and told the state PDP executive committee that they had become automatic members of the team. He said the state PDP executive should invite the three aspirants as well as all stakeholders of the exercise to a meeting, with the members of the team.He said the stakeholders include the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Honourable Aminu Tambawal, and the remaining 10 members of the lower chamber, three senators from the state, members of the Sokoto House of Assembly and local government chairmen in the state. Nyesum said the team would interact with them so as to know the best way to go about the exercise. He added that the members of the party in the state should exercise patience over who ever would be the state's PDP gubernatorial candidate.Responding, the state secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Aminu Mohammed, said as Sokoto was one of the most peaceful states of the country, it was their belief that the state PDP primary would be conducted peacefully. He said the three aspirants who included the state governor, a former senator and a former minister were well experienced people who could guarantee a peaceful conduct of the exercise.However, at the meeting called by the primary monitoring team, which held at the conference hall of Sokoto Government Lodge I, neither Senator Gada nor Suleiman was in attendance, but all the others invited honoured the team's invitation. This was to be an indicator to the indifference of Gada and Suleiman to the primary scheduled to take place the following morning.On the day of the primaries - Saturday, 17 December, the governor and his deputy, Alhaji Muktar Shehu Shagari, arrived the venue as early 8 a.m. even as the time fixed for the commencement of the exercise was 10 am.Around 11 a.m., the primary team leader addressed the members of the party on the rules of the game. He asked delegates to come forward to be screened according to the their local government areas. After that, he called the agents of the aspirants to come to the podium where voting would take place. To his chagrin, when he called the agents, only that of the governor answered. The two contestants were not at the venue, and so also their agents.Chief Wike then called on the governor, Speaker and members of the House of Representatives and senators to come forward and cast their votes, followed by chairmen of local government council areas and their deputies, as well as members of the state working committee of the party. After them, the primary team leader invited the wards delegates to vote.When voting was over, Chief Nyesum counted the votes to the hearing of everybody present at the venue, after which he declared the result. Announcing the results, the team leader said there were suppose to be 981 delegates out of which 961 were accredited prior to the commencement of voting exercise, adding that out of the 961 votes cast, five were void while all the remaining 956 votes were cast in favour of Governor Wamakko. He said the two other contestants scored no vote.Chief Ezenwo invited the governor to the podium and raised his hand as the winner of the Sokoto PDP ticket for the 10 March, 2012 gubernatorial election. He thanked the teaming supporters of the Sokoto PDP as well as security agencies for what he called their support towards the success of the primaries election.In his speech, Governor Wamakko began by thanking God for his victory and for making the people of Sokoto to witness the what he called the most descent primaries election ever conducted in the state. He commended the Speaker, Honourable Tambawal, serving senators and members of House of Representatives for being a part of the exercise.The governor also commended the PDP national headquarters, state secretariat of the party as well as the primaries team for adhering to the requirement of the party's constitution in the conduct of the primaries election. He concluded by thanking the delegates for choosing him as the party's standard-bearer.However, the Senator Abubakar Gada and the Yusuf Suleiman camps were quick to reject the conduct of the primary in its entirety. In a press conference addressed at the personal residence of Senator Gada by his Director-General campaign, Dr Mahe Dange, the senator said as far as he was concerned, there was no primary in the state. He said he refused to take part in the exercise because the Tony Amachukwu-led panel, inaugurated for the conduct of wards congress, did not consult him. Rather, it consulted the state government.Dange said apart from that, they merely filled the result sheet with names of non real politicians but civil servants, adding that the real politicians were with the Gada's camp and not the governor's camp. Dange, who doubles as the Yariman Sokoto, also said they boycotted the meeting called by the primary monitoring team, led by Chief Ezenwo, because the venue they held the meeting was a government facility, whereas his camp preferred a neutral place as venue.He alleged that the primary was null and void as, according to him, at the venue of the primaries, there were campaign posters of the governor. The Yarima of Sokoto further alleged that most of the delegates were civil servants and by law, they were not suppose to be in party politics. He drew attention of the national headquarters of the PDP on what he termed 'the danger of fielding a wrong candidate,' which, he said, would spell doom for the party.The Senator Gada campaign stated that they would make their grievances known to the national headquarters of the party for necessary action.Also in his reaction through the internet to the members of the Sokoto Correspondents' Chapel, the immediate past minister of sports, alleged that local government voters registers as well as membership cards of his supporters were confiscated by government officials during the wards congress in the state.In spite of the indifference of the two aspirants to the results of the primary as well as the entire conduct of the exercise, the gubernatorial primary was peaceful and no incidence of breach of public peace was recorded throughout the state.Even before the primary, sources said Gada and Suleiman had compiled separate list of their delegates for the conduct of parallel primary with the belief that the national headquarters of the PDP would accept theirs and throw away the one conducted through the state party secretariat.Pundits were of the view that the boycott of the exercise by Gada and Suleiman was as a result of the reality on ground as regards their slim chances of clinching the Sokoto PDP ticket, occasioned by their alleged failure to ensure that the governor was screened out of the primary in the state.Political observers in the state said the Sokoto PDP primary served as the pendulum of popularity test among the three aspirants. That it swung completely to the side of Wamakko showed that he is at present the Sokoto PDP'sman of the moment.
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