***Demands outright cancelation, repeat primary

Apparently still dissatisfied with the conduct of the April 20 Ondo State governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Ondo State, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim took his protest to the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday where he accused Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State and Ovie Omo-Agege of complicity in the shoddy exercise

Ibrahim while speaking to the senate Press corps made fresh allegations against Governor Usman Ododo, and a former Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Movie Omo-Agege, accusing them of changing the venue of the state collation centre abruptly without giving contestants prior notice.

Ododo and Omo-Agege were the chairman and secretary respectively of the election committee sent by the APC to conduct the primaries.
According to him, Ododo and Omo-Agege changed the date of collation of results midway to allow them perfect the electoral fraud in favour of the incumbent governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa who had contested the primary election with them.

To buttress his point, Jimoh who was a contestant in the election pointed out a letter written by Ododo Ahmed Usman which was addressed to the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akure purportedly changing the date of collation on the day of primary election.

Part of the letter which was sighted by our correspondent reads: “Please refer to our letters on the above stated subject matter, dated 5th April, 2024 with Ref. Number APC/NHDQ/INEC/19024/016 wherein we requested for a change in the State Collation Centre.

“We are writing to further inform the Commission of the postponement of the collation of election results for the All Progressives Congress, APC primary election, which is scheduled for 20th April, 2024. The postponement became necessary due to unforeseen circumstances regarding the submission of results from the Local Government Collation Centre Officers.

“Despite our best efforts to ensure timely collation, most of our Local Government collation officers will arrive late, as a result of logistic challenges which have led to a delay in the collation processes.”
Jimoh insisted that the primary election did not hold in 159 out of 203 polling units across the three Senatorial districts in Ondo State, insisting that Kogi State governor, Ododo Ahmed Usman who was the Chairman of Ondo State Primary Election Committee fraudulently declared Lucky Aiyedatiwa winner in cahoots with the former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege.

He maintained that his ground, reseeking a repeat of the governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the grounds that election was not conducted in 15 out of the 18 local government areas in the state.
Ibrahim, who was a contestant in the primaries, accused the APC’s electoral committee, chaired by Ododo, of allocating votes, as against conducting genuine polls.

“It was mere allocation of figures, no election. I was not even able to vote”, he said.

Ibrahim called for a repeat of the primaries or the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should bar the APC from participating in the main election.

Ibrahim, who brandished a document he said was the certified true copy of INEC’s report on the election, claimed that the primaries didn’t take place in up to 127 wards in the state, including Ilaje, the local government of the governor.

Armed with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s report, the lawmaker disclosed that he has filed a complaint at a Federal High Court in consonance with provisions of Electoral Act, which stipulates that, “complaints arising from primary election be filed within 14 days.”

In the INEC report which Jimoh personally made available to journalists, it was observed that APC primary election did not hold in 15 out of 18 Local Government Councils in Ondo, thus, the report did not reflect the controversial areas.
He recalled how he informed the National Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Gaduje, of his predicament, whereupon Ganduje directed that the election team should be sent to his house just so that he could vote.

He disclosed that when the team arrived at his house, he sent the members away “because my house was not a designated voting area”, adding that the development was a pointer to the fact that internal democracy hardly thrived in the country.

“We will fight to the Supreme Court .
In 127 of the wards, there was no election. Results were merely allocated. ..15 out of 18 local governments, no election, meaning that in 80% of the state, there was no voting”, he added.

***Alerts President Tinubu over Kwankwaso’s scheming to destabilize APC

From Mohammed Abubakar Minjibir

A Kano-based political think-tank, the CONCERNED KANO PROGRESSIVES, {CKP} has vowed to do everything humanly possible to support ongoing efforts of the national Chairman of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to reposition the party and encourage all elected representatives on the platform of the APC to manage the gains of their respective, electoral successes.
Similarly, the KCP, have also vowed to checkmate, what its members, have described as , “the infantile and highly dysfunctional thought-processes being elicited by one-time civilian Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Kwankwaso, in his drift towards political mischief-making against the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu “.
These views, were contained in a Media statement issued to newsmen on Sunday, by the National Coordinator of CKP Alhaji Mohammed Z. Abubakar.
The CKP stated that, “Anybody who knows Alhaji Kwankwaso and his conditioned behaviour towards matters of political socialization processes and mentorship, can attest to his high affinity for not only being domineering, high-handed, self-opinionated but abnormally dictatorial in the way and manner he relates with his peers, eminent political leadership figures and sundry loyal party members.”
The statement explained further that, “Alhaji Kwankwaso, is believing that he has the nationwide capacity to swing the sociology of the voter-behaviour of the larger Nigerian voting electorate come 2027, to actualize his animated ambition of becoming the President of Nigeria.”
The CKP, said that Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s self-inflated ego, is what is perhaps, leading him into nursing the faulty impression-formation disposition that, apart from the entire northern electorate, “voting” massively for him under the NNPP, the social and political rating which President Tinubu presently enjoys, is far below his self-proclaimed social and political stratification rating, which, has given him the pseudo courage to embark on his ongoing secret plans to destabilize the All Progressives Congress by using his NNPP political party platform to achieve his ambition of becoming president of Nigeria in 2027.
According to the CKP spokesman, Alhaji Mohammed Z. Abubakar, “Alhaji Kwankwaso’s hope of executing his plan of action is largely reliant and premised on the funding from his political stooge, the current Governor of Kano State, who will never dare defy the directives of Alhaji Kwankwaso, his father in-law and mentor.
Alhaji Kwankwaso, according to the Progressives, “uses the Kano State Executive Governor, Alhaji Abba Yusuf, as a willing instrument to prosecute his current thinly disguised agenda to blackmail and demonise the APC National Chairman, Alhaji Ganduje, and his party in such a way as to destroy the APC brand before the next general elections in 2027.
The Progressives, have therefore humbly advised President Tinubu and APC members nationwide to be on the alert about the scheming of Alhaji Kwankwaso.

The organisation indicated that, “the unfolding pockets of mischief-making ploys, antics and deviant behavioural traits being orchestrated by the former Governor of Kano State, Dr Kwankwaso and the current NNPP government led by Alhaji Abba Yusuf, to tarnish the good image and reputation of both the ruling APC and its National Chairman, Dr. Ganduje, will fail. “We stand resolutely in solidarity with Dr. Ganduje”, the statement concludes.

***not defeat for Atiku or victory for Wike

The Senate Minority Leader, Comrade Abba Patrick Moro on Saturday stated that the survival of Amb. Umar Lliya Damagum as Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was not a victory or defeat for anybody but a decision that was unanimously agreed on by the relevant stakeholders for the party to forge ahead.

Senator Moro’s reaction was coming against the backdrop of rumor in some quarters that Amb. Damagum’s survival, against call for his resignation, was victory for the former governor of River State and Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, and a defeat for PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Alh. Atiku Abubakar.
The Media Adviser to the Senate Minority Leader, Emmanuel Eche’Ofun John, in a statement quoted his principal to have indicated that the activities and inactivities of PDP should not be translated to Atiku and Wike.
He said the whole issue was not about victory or defeat for anybody but about PDP; about providing an alternative formidable platform for Nigerians to look up to.

“We cannot translate the entirety of PDP’s activities and inactivities to Wike and Atiku, out of millions of other members of the party across the country who also have their own thinking and reasons for being in the party.
The whole issue was not about Wike or Atiku, or victory for Wike or defeat for Atiku, the issue was existential. We came together and reasoned together, that in the present scenario where Nigerians are hurting due to the maladministration of the APC government, what do we do to provide an alternative platform for Nigerians to look up to? In that circumstances, we decided to thread with caution so that we dont throw away the baby with the bath water,” he said.

On why the National Caucus of the party allowed Nyesom Wike into their meeting, Senator Moro who is representing Benue South Senatorial District said the Minister couldn’t have been stopped from the meeting since he has not been found guilty of any crime and penalized by the party.

He said if the party’s disciplinary committee, headed by Senator Bukola Saraki found Wike guilty of the alleged antiparty activities and have him sanctioned, he will stop attending the party’s meetings.

“The constitution of our party is very clear on who is a member and who is not a member of the caucus of the party and I dare say, at this point, that as a former governor who is still a member of the party, Nyesom Wike is a member of the National Caucus of the party.

“If actions had been taken immediately after the elections and people who are perceived to have acted contrary to the desires and yearnings of the PDP have been sanctioned, then we can say that having been expelled or suspended, you can’t be here, but as it is, non of such actions has been taken, so you can’t just ban people from attending meetings.

“One of the fallouts of the last NEC meeting was the resuscitation of the Reconciliation and Disciplinary Committee, which is saddled with the responsibility of identifying the area of antiparty and the dramatis personae involved in the activities, and recommend appropriate punitive measures against those who have been found guilty to serve as deterrent to future occurrence.

“Unfortunately, that hasn’t been done, and so to that extent, as a voluntary organization, if the members involved insist they are still members of the party, until actions are taken by the Reconciliation and Disciplinary Committe we want to take that they are still members of the party,” he added.

On expectations from the next NEC meeting scheduled for August 15 as it concerns the position of the National Chairman of the party, the Senate Minority Leader said the party’s constitution had a well spelt out succession plan.

“The constitution of our party has a well spelt-out succession plan. Section 35 (3C) states that where a vacancy exists, someone from the zone of the immediate past occupier of the office shall be appointed by NEC to complete the tenure of the person who vacated the office.

“For the position of the National Chairman, we will look at the succession plan of the party, in accordance with the constitutional provisions, and produce a replacement for Senator Iyorchia Ayu from North Central now that he has heeded to our plea and withdrawn his case from the court. We will go to the next NEC meeting with open minds and invoke the relevant sections of the constitution to produce his replacement,” he stated.

Senator Moro appealed to members and stakeholders of the party to have some level of circumspection and restraints in their actions and utterances so as not to further polarize the party. He assured that everything humanly possible would be done to put the party on its winning ways, to rescue Nigerians from the grinding poverty and sufferings that the ruling APC has plunged them into.