By Lola Idahosa, Kaduna
Despite endorsement by the people of Southern Kaduna ,the Primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party ,PDP came to a sad ending for Senator Aziz Zego as political forces in the state conspired to edge him out of the race .
Before the election commenced at about 2pm, Senator Aziz Zego was confident that he was going to defeat the incumbent Governor Mukhtar Yero. He told Newsdiaryonline that he has assisted all the PDP Governors in winning their election and that he sees no reason why he should not win the primary and even the general election.
In his word, “I have been a political leader in Southern Kaduna since early 90s and am one of those who have been making governors in Kaduna to win their elections; it is now time for me to be in Government House.”
Newsdiaryonline gathered that the Vice President Namadi Sambo was instrumental to Sen. Aziz’s purchase of governorship form, while Senator Mohammed Makarfi was also behind Hassan Hyet ambition to contest .
Newsdiaryonline also leant that less than twenty-four hours to the primaries election a meeting was called by the Vice President during which all the aspirants were told to step down for the incumbent Gov. Yero with the promise of compensating each aspirant with the sum of N100,000,000.00( One hundred million naira)
In the meeting according to our source, the VP told Gov. Yero to settle those aspirants that agreed to step down with the sum of N100,000,000.00( One hundred million naira) each to compensate them for their expenses so far incurred during their campaign.
Those that step down include Hassan Hyat, lawal yakawada and Rtd air commodore Ajie Bako.There is no evidence to show that anybody was paid the said amount.
But Senator Aziz Haruna Zego, a former General in the Army and known to be stubborn, refused to step down for the incumbent governor because the people of southern Kaduna had earlier endorsed him as the sole candidate from the zone to govern the state.
The election, which was held at the Murtala Square Kaduna, was attended by the Nigerian Vice President Sambo, the state Deputy Governor, Nuhu Bajoga, as well as two Senators, Ahmed Makarfi and Nenadi Usman, who lost her own seat at the party’s senatorial primaries, among other party stalwarts.
Newsdiaryonline also gathered that delegates from the southern part of Kaduna were given the sum of two hundred thousand naira each and about 428 delegates came from the southern Kaduna zone amounting to 85,600,000 . The other two zones: namely zone one and zone two with 544 delegates zones were given undisclosed amount but less than that of zone three to vote for Gov. Yero.
Kaduna state chairman of PDP Chief Abubakar Gayya Haruna also confirmed that money was given to delegates to take refreshment but refused to disclose the amount.
According to him,” the delegates came from far to cast their votes and there was need to give them something to buy biscuit and water to take in the process of waiting to cast their votes.”
On the pattern of voting, he said, yes it is true that agents were the ones writing names of aspirants, “they had earlier agreed right from their zones on whom to vote for, they had agreed to vote for a particular aspirant and that is it”.
On the day of the primary, journalists were told by the chairman of election panel that five PDP Governorship aspirants were cleared to contest the election; three stepped down for the incumbent governor Yero on personal grounds and in the interest of the party.
In the election which was conducted under the watchful eyes of who is who in PDP in Kaduna state including the Vice President Namadi Sambo, delegates were not allowed to write aspirants name in the secret ballot paper which all delegates are supposed to write the name of their choice.
But in this case, only the agent of Governor of Yero was given the ballot paper to write Yero’s name in the ballot paper. This was to prevent Senator Aziz from getting a single vote from his own zone.
Unlike the voting pattern from the House of Assemblies, House of Representative and that Senate which the panel give ballot paper to delegates to personally write whichever aspirant they chose to vote for, the PDP governorship primaries was different and did not go down well with Senator Aziz Zego.
It was an open ballot system of voting whereby delegates were not free to vote for their choice but could only do what they were told to do.
Declaring the result of the contest, the chairman of the PDP governorship primary election panel in the state, Steve Oruh, said Mr. Yero polled 970 votes to defeat Senator, Haruna Zego who got only one vote. He also declared that a total of 972 delegates voted ,one invalid.
Senator Haruna Aziz had no choice than to congratulate Gov. Yero and accepted defeat.
In his acceptance speech, Governor Yero called on all aspirants that contested the election to join hands in ensuring that the PDP wins the general election in 2015.
“I thank all the three aspirants that contested in the election, especially Commodore Ajie, Lawal Samaila Yakawada and Felix Hyet that withdrew and I also thank Senator Aziz and call on them to join me in ensuring victory in all elections in 2015 for the party,” he said.
It would now be a fierce face-off between the former minister of the FCT, Nasir El-Rufai, who won the All Progressives Congress governorship ticket and Mr. Yero in 2015.
