Crisis In Gombe PDP As Mass Defection Looms, Aspirants Kick Against Nafada Emerging As Governorship Candidate
Mass defection of gubernatorial aspirants on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe State along with their supporters and structures is looming, universalreportersng.com has authoritatively gathered.
The aspirants are angry over alleged manipulation of party’s primary election which saw Senator Bayero Nafada emerging as winner with 1104 votes beating 12 other candidates.
The Party held the governorship primary on Monday night to the early hours of Tuesday after it was aborted midway on Sunday night when some of the party stakeholders stormed the Gombe state government house banquet hall venue of the exercise and tore open the ballot boxes in protest over alleged manipulations.
While Jamilu Isyaku Gwamna, the runner up got distant votes of 147, while Ahmed Walama and Hassan Mohammadu got 16 votes each.
Others are Bala Bello Tinka 11 votes, Major Gen. Sylvester Audu 7 votes, Alhassan Mohammad Fawu and Ahmed Mohammed Goje got 2 votes each while Haruna Garba got 3 votes with Abdulkadir Hamasalleh and Umaru Bello recording no vote.
In reaction, the runner up, Jamil Isyaku Gwamna , faulted the exercise, saying it was a mere charade planned to favour the winner.
Jamil said what was experience in Gombe “is an act of robbery and a harbinger of intimidation which could culminate into having crisis within the party.”
In a statement signed and issued by his media coordinator, Sani Ibrahim Shawai, shortly after the exercise, he lamented that it was a clear victory for him until the antics of Senator Bayero Nafada, who openly disrupted the process on Sunday night to allow him and his cohorts arranged the charade that took place on Monday.
“The coast was clear for Dr. Jamil Isyaku Gwamna, until the thugs of the senator succeeded in disrupting the business of the day to have a secret meeting of intimidation and alleged cases of vote and conscience buying which resulted to the purportedly fake and cooked up victory of senator Bayero Nafada.” He said.
“We therefore totally reject the outcome of the results and as such call on all true democrats in our party to come to our rescue in Gombe State because our democracy is now under siege.” He added.
Reliable source within the party in the state told our reporter that a substantial number of the gubernatorial aspirants may seek another platform on which their aspiration could be realized or pitch tent with the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state should the party refused to address the abnormalities that characterized the exercise.
