From Ahmed Tahir Ajobe, Minna
The discontent which trailed the recent conduct of primaries into various positions have continued in Niger state with aspirants to State House of Assembly calling for the cancellation of the exercise.
A group of aspirants in a petition made available to Daily Trust called for rerun of the exercise, while rejecting the outcome of the primary.
The aspirants, in a petition to the state party Chairman, Jibrin Iman, and signed by 30 out of the 62, alleged that the entire exercise was marred by violence, intimidation and all forms of threat to lives.
According to them, a particular instance was the violence and intimidation that characterized the conduct of the primary election in Chanchaga constituency where they accused the party of manipulating the process in favor of the incumbent and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Ahmed Marafa Guni.
Mohammed Ndanusa who spoke onbehalf of himself and six other aspirants from the constituency alleged that the primary was not held as pre-requisite for the nomination of candidate for the area.
He pointed out that contrary to the agreed date of 6th October for the primary election, the party decided to shift the exercise to 3:00am on the 7th without notifying other aspirants, saying that “apart from the local government party vice chairman with some commissioners and director generals that were there, no other election officials and aspirants’ agents were present at the venue of the purported primary election..
“It on this ground that we wish to call for the cancellation of the purported primary election,” he noted.
He said the process has created disunity and disaffection in the party, even as the noted that internal democracy has been chattered which undoubtedly will affect its success at the general elections.
He threatened to seek legal means of redressing what they referred to “as outright robbery” of the peoples’ mandate.
