There is palpable fear as Kogi chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may lose governorship candidate in the November 16 election in the state following the decision of the first runner up of PDP governorship primaries, Abubakar Ibrahim to drag the governorship candidate of the party, Musa Wada to court.
Indices have however proven the contest may end-up between the SDP governorship candidate, Barr. Natasha Akpoti and Governor Yahaya Bello of APC as major contenders.
Ibrahim, a major contender for the Peoples Democratic Party governorship ticket filed a suit at the Lokoja High Court seeking the nullification of the PDP governorship primaries and asking the Independent National Electoral Commission to stop forthwith the recognition of Musa Wada as the party’s flag bearer.
Ibrahim who was at the Lokoja High Court to sign the necessary papers, says he is the rightful owner of the PDP governorship mandate.
If the High Court go the way of nullifying the election, PDP may end-up not having a candidate for the November 16 governorship election in the state, paving way for Governor Yahaya Bello of APC and Natasha Akpoti of SDP as the major contenders.
Recall similar scenario played out in Zamfara and River states when Federal High Court in Abuja stopped the APC from presenting candidates in Rivers and Zamfara following the inability of the party to resolve its internal crises on the conduct of its primaries.
While the APC crisis in Zamfara and River states were caused by internal crisis occasioned by factions of the party, the current crisis in Kogi PDP may lead to nullifying of the primaries already conducted by PDP that produced Musa Wada as its governorship candidate since the duration for primary election has elapsed.
As the political situations unfold, the people of the state are following keenly to know where they will stand on November 16.
– Isah Ibrahim writes from Lokoja.
