Friday, 5 September 2014

Adamawa poll: Ribadu, seven others step down to contest in 2015

After about four hours (from 9.06 p.m Thursday to 1.00 a.m  Friday) meeting presided over by the Senate President David Mark, with the aspirants of the governorship election in Adamawa State  at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, the outcome is that eight  of the 14 aspirants jostling for the Adamawa State Governorship election under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stepped down from the race.

Those who have withdrawn from today’s primary election include Nuhu Ribadu;  Auwal Tukur; Aliyu Idi Hong, Andrawus Sawa; James Barka;  Gen. Aliyu Kama; Markus Gundiri and Abubakar Girei.

The six aspirants still in the race for the party’s ticket are  Ahmed Gulak, Buba Marwa, Ahmed Modibbo, Dr. Umar Ardo, Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri, and Jerry Kumdisi.‎

Those stepping down now can contest for the party’s governorship election ticket in 2015, with more consideration in 2015 for Adamawa Central that has never produced a governor.

Mark and National Working Committee (NWC) of the party ‎stepped in to forestall the crisis rocking the party in the state ahead of the party’s primary election billed for today in the state, following the impeachment of the former Governor, Murtala Nyako.



The election to elect substantive governor for the state has been fixed for ‎11th October, 2014.

The Senate President along with other officials of the party were able to reach a compromise with the aspirants and pruned down the number of those contesting to six.

It was agreed at the closed-door meeting that the six aspirants contesting for the party’s ticket today will not contest for the position in 2015.

The meeting also agreed that any aspirant who fails to win the party’s ticket in today’s primary election, the meeting, also agreed must support the party’s flag bearer towards the October 11th election.

Fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the meeting in the early hours of Friday, Chairman of the Adamawa State chapter of the party, Joel Madaki said, “Fourteen aspirants contesting for the position earlier has now reduced to six aspirants due to this meeting. It is a very welcome idea. Nobody was forced to step them. Those who stepped down did so voluntarily in order to wait to contest for the position in 2015.”

“The six aspirants contesting this election are Ahmed Gulak, Buba Marwa, Ahmed Modibbo, Dr. Umar Ardo, Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri, and Jerry Kumdisi.” He added

The former Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, who is contesting for the ticket on Saturday, said: “The outcome of the meeting was fantastic. We met as family members of PDP, even before coming here all the aspirants in Adamawa have unanimously resolved that after the primaries, in a free, fair primaries, anybody that emerges will get our support.”

“Today, in this meeting, the number of the aspirants have been drastically reduced to six, which is manageable. I am contesting, Gen. Marwa is contesting, Ahmed Modibbo is contesting, Dr. Umar Ardo is contesting, Hon. Jerry Kumdisi is contesting, and Acting Governor Fintiri is contesting.

“And we have resolved to go into the primaries without rancour, without acrimony and to come out of it as peaceful co-existing members.

“And at the end of it all, anybody that emerges, we will all queue behind him. And if I emerge as the candidate, they will all queue behind me. It is going to be a family affair and there will be no losers.”

On his chances of getting the ticket as Ribadu and others are now out of the race, he said: “Nuhu Ribadu or not, you know, I prepared for this election. Even, if 14 of us are going into this election, I am confident of my ability, of my capability, of my mobilization, of my sensitization that the delegates will select me.”

Aliyu Idi Hong, who is among those who withdrew from the race, said: “Peace-building, negotiation, give-and-take, everything went well. We have been given a caveat and one thing we have succeeded in extracting from this meeting is that the meeting started with a preamble that whoever is going to contest and if he happens to win as a governor, he will not have the right to contest the 2015 election.”

“Some of us think that our aspirations, our ambition, our vision for Adamawa is a long term and more articulate vision and not a stop-gap six‎”.

Source: Sunnews

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