The Curious Case of Igala Politics by Suleiman Abu Maryam

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News reaching us is that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has declared AVM Isaac Alfa the true winner of the PDP 2014 Senatorial Primary Elections and by virtue of that, the rightful flag-bearer of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Kogi East Senatorial rerun elections.

Senator Attai Aidoko Ali was declared the winner of the primary elections and was the flag bearer for his party, the PDP until today when his victory was upturned in favour of AVM Isaac Alfa, also of the PDP.

As it stands now, Air Vice Marshal Isaac Alfa is the winner of the 2014 People’s Democratic Party Senatorial Primaries held in Idah, Kogi State and will be running in the remainder of the elections.

It could be recalled that the primary elections was marred by controversies as up to 4 different contestants declared themselves winners of the elections. Hajia Barrister Halimah Alfa, Abdulrahman Railway, Attai Ali Aidoko and AVM Isaac Alfa all claimed to have won the elections but Aidoko was eventually selected by the party to represent them in the general senatorial elections. Abdulrahman Railway felt bitter, betrayed and disappointed (and rightly so) and left the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for All Progressive Congress (APC) where he was given the ticket to contest in the general elections which he eventually won in style. In a twist to the drama though, Senator Aidoko himself was a member of the APC, but he decamped to the PDP few weeks to the PDP primary elections.

The unending political soap opera of Igala land gets more interesting at this point as Senator Aidoko and the PDP took Sen. Abdulrahman Railway and the APC to court challenging Sen. Railway’s eligibility to run in the general elections in the first place. Their argument was that he was not rightfully nominated by his party, the APC, in accordance with the constitution. The PDP and Aidoko won the case at the Elections Tribunal and the Court of Appeal. However, the Court of Apeal requested that fresh elections be held but barred Abdulrahman Railway and the APC from contesting as -according to the Judge – Sen. Railway and his party were not eligible to contest. That rerun elections itself was declared inconclusive and a date for a fresh one is yet to be announced by INEC.

With this new development, Aidoko will not be running under the PDP and it seems like his dreams of returning to the senate is all but over until 2019 when new elections will be held; except of course he wins an appeal.

A lot has happened since the last primary elections in Kogi East, Hajia Halimah Alfa has also left the PDP for the APC, and two Senior APC members (Prince Abubakar Audu and Barrister James Ocholi) from Kogi East have sadly passed away. Prince Audu died just before he was to become the Governor of the state for the third time, while Hon. Ocholi died as a serving Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

– Suleiman writes from London, UK.


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