YAKOWA ESCAPES DELISTING

There was mild drama yesterday at the premises of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) in Kaduna State when the name of the state Governor, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, was missing from the list of the Peoples Democratic Party's candidates in the state displayed for the commission.

But that of his deputy, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, featured conspicuously just as it was over looking the empty space slated for Yakowa's name which was finally pasted after about five hours later. However, the three Senatorial candidates from the state, Ahmed Makarfi, Yusuf Hamisu Mairago and Nenadi Esther Usman made the INEC list. Also 24 candidates for the House of Representatives and 23 candidates for the State House of Assembly made the list yesterday.

On why Governor Yakowa's name got missing for hours, the state INEC Secretary, Administration Department, Musa H. Adamu, said: 'It is not everybody's name that is on that list. There are a lot of lists that are not there but that is not to say that their names are not sent to us from the headquarters.

'We are still processing the papers; we are photocopying and doing all the paper work. So at this point it is too early to conclude that somebody's name is on the list or not.'

Other names released by INEC at the time of filing this report, included Action Congress of Nigeria (A CN) governorship candidate in the state, Sani Mohammed Sha'aban with his running mate, Joel Giwa, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) governorship candidate, Senator Mukhtar Ahmed Aruwa with the running mate, Bulus Gani, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) governorship candidate, Balarabe Musa, with the running mate, Tom Maitamaiki, National Transformation Party (NTP) governorship candidate, Jimmy Dung, with the running mate, Musa Mohammed.

PDP list showed Mr. Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa-Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero-Deputy Governor, and for Senate 1.Senator Ahmed Makarfi-Kaduna North 2. Mrs. Nenadi Esther Usman-Southern Kaduna 3.Alhaji Yusuf Hamisu Mairago-Kaduna Central