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Some of the APC 202 guber candidates
All issues surrounding the governorship primaries in states where the contests were contentious have been resolved by the All Progressives Congress (APC), it was learnt last night.
All but one of the party’s governorship candidates have been uploaded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal.
Governorship elections will be conducted in 28 states. The APC has uploaded the particulars of its governorship candidates and their running mates in 27 states.
The only state left is in the Northeast, where the choice of a running mate is expected to be decided at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja today.
In the state, the serving deputy governor has completed two terms and needs to be replaced.
Among those already uploaded are the governorship candidates for Kwara, Oyo, Adamawa and Bauchi states, where the primaries were fiercely contested.
House of Assembly Speaker Yakubu Danladi Salihu is the APC governorship candidate in Kwara.
Senator Sharafadeen Alli’s name has been uploaded as the Oyo State governorship candidate. His running mate is Adesoji Adedeji.
Ahmed Tijani Galadima, a former Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), is the Adamawa State governorship candidate, while former Governor Mohammed Abubakar is the Bauchi State governorship candidate.
In all four states, there were protests by aggrieved contestants.
Kwara
In Kwara, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s endorsement of Danladi ruffled political feathers.
Some of the leading aspirants among the 16 vying for the ticket were Senators Salihu Mustapha (Kwara Central), Oyelola Ashiru (Kwara South) and Umar Sadiq Suleiman (Kwara North).
Danladi’s emergence did not go down well with the aspirants and some party elders across the three senatorial districts.
In Bauchi, the APC has been battling internal crises following its governorship primary, an exercise that pitched party loyalists against one another.
The primary attracted some of the party’s biggest names, including former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar; Bala Wunti; Nura Manu Soro; and Senator Shehu Umar Buba.
Internal disagreements followed the eventual emergence of Abubakar as the party’s standard-bearer.
Some aspirants and their supporters expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the primary.
Senator Buba defected and became the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Deputy Chairman of the APC in the state, Ibrahim Misau, also left the party, along with some local government and ward executives in the Misau Local Government Area. They declared support for Buba.
In Adamawa, however, aggrieved party members appear to have closed ranks after Ahmed Tijani Galadima clinched the ticket to represent the party.
Galadima was not the preferred choice of Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri. He was said to have enjoyed the backing of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu.
Fintiri, who joined the APC a few months before the primary, found himself in the difficult position of having to contend with Ribadu over the matter.
The governor was said to have allowed the matter to rest. He has since been seen with Galadima at political functions.
In Oyo, former Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu, who lost in the primary, continued to insist that the shadow poll was transparent.
He repeatedly assured his supporters that he would overturn the outcome through his appeal at the party’s National Secretariat.
Even after Senator Alli was presented with his certificate of return and unveiled his running mate, Adesoji Adedeji, Adelabu and some other aspirants maintained that there was no candidate yet.
All those issues have now been laid to rest.
A member of the party’s vetting committee, who preferred not to be named, said: “We have made giant strides in our efforts to upload the details of all our governorship candidates and their deputies.
“But for one state, we would have completed and closed the process for governorship candidates.”
The source added that the outstanding issue concerns a Northeast state and involves the choice of a running mate.
The official said: “The deputy governorship candidate caused the delay.
“The issue will be resolved at a crucial stakeholders’ meeting scheduled for Monday (today) here in Abuja.”
Also processed on the party’s portal are 12 first-time governorship flag-bearers and their running mates.
They include: Obafemi Hamzat (Lagos), Solomon Adeola (Ogun), Kingsley Chinda (Rivers), Eric Opah (Abia), Mohammed Abubakar (Bauchi), Mustapha Gubio (Borno), Jamilu Gwamna (Gombe), Ahmed Wadada (Nasarawa) and Baba Wali (BMW) (Yobe).
The source added that 60 per cent of the party’s House of Assembly candidates have also been uploaded.
There will be House of Assembly elections in all 36 states.
Political parties have until August 8 to upload the names of their governorship and House of Assembly candidates. (The Nation)
