By Marie-Therese Nanlong.
Jos – The All Progressive Congress, APC gubernatorial primary election in Plateau State witnessed a delay Thursday as a result of a last minute entrant who had to go through the rigors of lobbying the over 2,900 delegates participating in the exercise.

The exercise billed for 10am could not commenced even at 5.25pm though delegates from the 17 local government areas of the State had assembled at the Crest Hotel venue of the event.

Explaining the delay, the Chairman, Plateau State Gubernatorial/House of Assembly Committee, Mr. Sunny Moniedafe who came from the Party’s headquarters to monitor the election said there was a need to give a level playing ground for all.

Speaking with Vanguard, the Chairman said, “The process of the primary election is smooth and encouraging. We have this delay because there is a late joiner and he needs time to go through some processes and canvass for votes from the delegates.

“The delegates have settled in but because the Party decided that one could still buy the form on the eve of the primary election, this affected our planning but everything will be okay.”

However, unconfirmed report had it that the delay was compounded as a result of the change of delegates’ name from “some quarters” thereby denying the original delegates the opportunity of participating in the exercise.

Meanwhile, one of the aspirants, Mr. Alex Kwapnoe stepped down from participating, those in the race included a former Speaker of the State Assembly, Barr. Simon Lalong, Barr. Solomon Dalung, Senator Venmark Dangin, Prof. Emmanuel Garba and the late joiner, Dr. Selchang Maina.

The exercise was yet to commenced at the time of this report.