By Umaru Yusuf, Yola
Protests have continued to trail the conduct of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) chairmanship and councillorship primaries ahead of the Adamawa state local government councils elections slated for November.
In most of the local government areas, the primaries conducted during the weekend witnessed tension and complaints following the alleged imposition of candidates raising fears about the party chances in the election if urgent reconciliation is not done before the November LG election.
In Ganye local government, there was a report of free for all fight, as according to a protesting party supporter Michael Gwangwaso,” They wanted to cheat us, and we are ready for a showdown. The party primary was not conducted in a transparent manner”
“This brought free for all fight,as the wanted to impose their unpopular candidates on us”, he stated.
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And in Numan local government, some PDP supporters under the auspices of Concern Citizens of Numan Town have protested against what they described as wrongful disqualification of some aspirants for the coming council election by the Kwamoti Laori led screening committee.
The protesters who address a press conference in Yola accused the screening committee of showing favouratism in the exercise.
Spokesman of the concerned members who read their text, Mr. Vidiyabo Pagiel, appealed to the National Executive Council of the party and Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri to intervene to save the party.
They alleged that the committee disqualified a popular candidate in Numan LG on the flimsy excuse that placed PDP at a disadvantaged position for the election in the area.
“Why are some Councillorship candidates cleared by the committee despite the allegations raised against them that they are still civil servants on the government payroll,” the group queried.
They wonder why the committee should disqualify one Nayiso on the flimsy excuse and cleared others with serious problems, adding that there was nothing like zoning for anyone to contemplate suppressing candidates from the four wards of Numan metropolis out of the election.
“We are appealing to NEC of PDP, the state executive council members, and the executive governor to look into our grievances to avert future actions which may lead to the downfall of PDP in Numan LGA.”
“In most of the Local governments in the Northern Senatorial zone, reports had it that the primaries to elect local government Chairmanship and Councillorship candidates were greeted with gunshots as people ran to all directions and still the imposed candidates were declared as winners”, Mahmud Othman, an aspirant from Maiha local government in the zone stated.
According to him, similar problems were recorded in the rest four local government areas that make up the senatorial zone because of the imposition of government favored candidates and the disqualification of the people’s preferred ones.
