Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The crisis rocking the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Plateau State has assumed a different dimension following allegations that the party’s state chairman, Solomon Yakub, sent a strange name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the purported winner of the substitution governorship election held last Tuesday.
However, Yakubu denied any wrong doing, saying that he was not aware of any contention following the emergence of the winner of Plateau State governorship ticket of NDC, stressing that INEC monitored the exercise and compiled their report.
The National Auditor of NDC, Oluwole Adedapo, who was delegated by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to conduct the exercise, declared that Da Jonathan Akuns was returned unopposed.
Adedapo, while announcing the result of the substitution primary, disclosed that on arrival in Jos, he paid a courtesy visit to the party’s state Exco at the state secretariat where he explained the purpose of his mission
He expressed surprise that at about 10.30pm on the eve of the substitution primary, some persons who claimed to be operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) stormed the venue, urging him to follow them to their office.
Adedapo explained that going by the NDC records, only Akuns purchased the expression of interest and nomination forms of the party and was successfully screened, stressing that the idea of the substitution primary was to receive stakeholder affirmation since there was no challenger.
He said: “The party faithful present at the meeting refused the invitation and informed the DSS officers that Adedapo was sent from Abuja and that this was a political family meeting and not an illegal assembly.
“The next day, which was Tuesday, the date of the primary proper, the state chairman shouted at me and attempted to disrupt the exercise.
“He dragged chairmen of seven LGAs to go and hold an illegal parallel exercise. The responsibility of conducting the governorship primary is that of the national leadership of the party.”
But, a stakeholder, Abdullahi Iliya, told journalists that after holding a parallel substitution primary with NDC chairmen of seven local government areas, Yakubu sent the name of Alfred Damiyal, a defeated governorship aspirant from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial primary, to the INEC.
He noted that in the bid to perfect his breach of due process, Yakubu passed the report of his parallel exercise through the Plateau State office of the Election and Party Monitoring (EPM) unit for onward transmission to the INEC headquarters.
When contacted, the NDC National Secretary, Ikenna Enekweizu, said that the NDC had forwarded to INEC the name of Akuns, its nominee for the Plateau State governorship 2027 poll.
He stressed that it would be strange for INEC to accept any communication that was not endorsed by the national chairman and secretary, stressing that it was a settled tradition that only the national leadership of a political party should organise party primaries and forward to INEC the list of nominated candidates.
Enekweizu noted: “I heard that the Plateau State chairman sent a name to INEC, but I am just hearing the suggestion that my signature and that of the national chairman could have been cloned. If INEC accepted the letter from the state chairman, we would challenge them to show us the letter if they acted on any names contrary to what we sent to them.
“We have forwarded the name of Da Jonathan Sunday Akuns to INEC and anything outside that is an aberration.”