By Esigie O. Esigie Abuja
Former political adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Barr. Ahmed Gulak, former Minister of Health, Dr. Idi Hong and Sen. Silas Zwingina yesterday got a landslide votes to clinch Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket to contest for the forthcoming senatorial election in Adamawa state.
While Zwingina got 274 votes to represent Adamawa Southern Zone, Hong got 242 votes to represent Adamawa Central Zone and Gulak scored 184 votes to represent Adamawa North.
The major contender against Zwingina, Sen. Ahmed Barata, who contested against Zwingina got 39 votes, Hon. Aishatu Biyani, who contested against Hong got two votes and those who ran against Gulak scored zero and one invalid vote.
Speaking after their victory, the senators congratulated the party for a successful primaries and justified the relocation of the primaries from Yola to Abuja, but however promised to go all out to win the senatorial election in the state.
Addressing journalists, Gulak, who justified the rescheduling of the primaries in Abuja said “there are issues in Borno and Yobe we must minimise collateral damage in whatever that we do， be it political gathering until the situation is normalised.
He added that “the NWC of our great party in its wisdom has directed that the primary elections of Adamawa be held in Abuja, as a disciplined and loyal member of the party, everybody that received this directive ought to have been here but anybody that has kept away has his or her constitutional right not to participate in the process. You have seen the majority of the delegates are here today, out of maybe 100 percent about 75 percent of the delegates are here and we thank God it was successful.＂
Umar Bello Jada, winner of the Jada/Ganye/ Toungo/Mayo Belwa federal constituency, declared that there was no constitutional issue over the holding of the primaries in Abuja.
He stated that although the constitution provided that primaries should hold in constituencies, he noted that the security situation in the state and the action of the incumbent governor, James Ngilari at the cancelled House of Assembly primaries mandated the leadership of the party to move the primaries to Abuja.
He said: “The constitution provides that the primaries should be moved to a secure place. With the issue that emanated from the last House of Assembly, where the governor was accused of kidnapping the panel and hijacking the electoral material, we don’t want a repeat of that charade. So because the NWC of PDP yearns for transparency, it moved the primaries to Abuja.”
He further defended the choice of Abuja for the state party primaries, noting that by the provision of the constitution, “Abuja as a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is home to all.”
Of the 140 votes for the constituency, Jada scored 137 votes to defeat the incumbent, Hon. Ahmadu Wangubi, who got one vote. Another aspirant, Mohammed Bassey got 2 votes.
However, while, Hon. Ibrahim Abdulmiminu Song emerged winner of Fufore/Song federal constituency, Wulbina Jackson won in Guyuk/shellenge federal constituency.
