A governorship aspirant in Kaduna State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress ( APC), retired Assistant Comptroller-General (ACG) of the Nigeria Customs Service, Malam Bashir Abubakar (Barden Kudun Zazzau), has alleged that his supporters, numbering over 3,000, attempted to buy forms at the party office in Kaduna to participate as delegates in the party’s guber primaries but were denied.
Abubakar lamented that the APC guber primaries in Kaduna State was was marred with anomalies, alleging that there was no congress in the State. He said they later heard an announcement by a team ‘supported by the government of the State that there was a concession among groups’.
He said, “They were able to take video evidence at the scene. They bought forms from Abuja, brought them to the Kaduna office but it was rejected. As law-abiding citizens, they took the forms home”.
He told journalists in Kaduna that “we wrote a petition: however, the Appeal Committee refused to collect the petition, adding that they have written to the President and copied security agencies”.
He explained further: “On the day of the election, we were called to the party office in Kaduna for briefing and we were briefed about the dos and donts; it was at that time the list of delegates was given to us and the election was to take place in an hour.
“The entire process became a charade and a child’s play. We decided however to participate in the election, bearing in mind that our over 3,000 delegates were not on the list”.
He further said, “The election screening process started, and as expected, none of my over 3,000 delegates were allowed to enter the Yar’Adua Hall of Murtala Square, which was the venue where the election took place. We allowed them to do their drama and the supporters of the government delegates were able to give me 37 votes, to emerge at the finish as the second.
“Soon after the election, we sat with my campaign DG, Engr. James Bawa Magaji, and decided to write to the Appeal Committee at the National Secretariat. We have copied the party chairman, INEC, and security agencies”.
He said the senator who was declared the winner, Uba Sani, “communicated with me a day after the election. His campaign DG and some senior government officials reached out that they need to sit down with me for a meeting. I decided to call my campaign and legal teams.
”The management team agreed that I should sit with Senator Uba Sani and his team and listen to them in order to see how to forge ahead.
“Whatever discussion we have with the senator we will inform members of the Media about it.
“On behalf of my campaign team, we are calling on the management of our great party to look into the grievances of our people who participated in the primaries. Doing so will unite the party and make it stronger. We are afraid of the consequences that not doing so might cause.
I use this opportunity to commend our supporters and call on them to remain law-abiding”, he said.
