Fresh reports from the Presidential Villa Friday morning said former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC ,Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and seven other aspirants have dropped out of the Adamawa State gubernatorial race.The fourteen aspirants met with Senate President David Mark and other party stakeholders last night.
Joel Madaki Adamawa State chapter of PDP told journalists after the meeting ,“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″.
Madaki listed those still in the race to thus: “The six aspirants contesting this election are Ahmed Gulak, Buba Marwa, Ahmed Modibbo, Dr. Umar Ardo, Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri, and Jerry Kumdisi.”
Ahmed Gulak, former Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, who is still in the race 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.”
He said further,“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”.
No official reason have been given why the aspirants dropped out of the race. But Aliyu Idi Hong, who also opted out of the race said :. “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.”
Aside from Ribadu, others who dropped out of the race include Markus Gundiri ,Abubakar Girei Auwal Tukur; Aliyu Idi Hong, Andrawus Sawa and James Barka.
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