DISQUALIFIED KADUNA PDP GOVERNORSHIP ASPIRANT MULLS LEGAL ACTION

By NBF News

A PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Kaduna State, Othman Suleiman Hunkuyi, has said that he may take legal option to challenge his disqualification to contest the party's primaries for the 2011 governorship election.

Accusing Vice President Namadi Sambo of being allegedly responsible for his ordeal, Hunkuyi, who is a major threat to the incumbent Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa for the PDP primaries, had appealed against his disqualification by the zonal party screening committee, but his appeal to the national screening committee of the PDP was not successful.

Hunkuyi, who displayed the tax certificate issued to him by the Kaduna State government covering the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 at a press briefing in Kaduna last week, said: 'The screening committee said my tax clearance was incomplete, but I presented my tax certificate covering the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 to them.

'But when they saw that there was nothing to pin me down on, they demanded for the receipts of the tax payments. I told them that what the guidelines of our party demanded was that I should present my tax clearance certificate, which I did and which is superior. When the committee members insisted on the receipts, I went and searched for my receipts and I gave them in addition, the receipts for the years covering 2004, 2005, 2006, up to 2009. But I could not lay hands on 2007 receipt'.

The aggrieved politician added: 'When I insisted and told the committee members that my tax certificate is superior to the receipts and indicated payments for the years in question, the committee members advised me to go and swear an affidavit for the missing receipt of 2007, which I did and submitted.

'The next thing I was told was that the committee has disqualified me because of incomplete tax clearance. What type of injustice is this? I appealed against the decision of the lower committee, but just about three days ago, the decision of the lower committee was upheld and they said that I swore to an affidavit and that my tax clearance was incomplete. This is great injustice'.

Besides, Hunkuyi, who was a Commissioner for Finance in the state and also the campaign coordinator to two former governors, Ahmed Muhammed Makarfi and Namadi Sambo, argued that the decision to disqualify him from the governorship primaries by the party was a confirmation of the pledge by the Vice President 'to deal with me'.

Apparently, he was referring to the comments made by Vice President Sambo when he met with party chieftains and stakeholders at Government House, Kaduna, after he was appointed as the Vice President. The proceedings of meeting were aired on Kaduna State Radio.

Said Hunkuyi: 'One of the options we are contemplating is the legal angle. I don't think the option of legal redress against my disqualification is foreclosed. I don't really know of what happens in other states, but from what I heard from my colleagues in other states, there is nothing like internal democracy'.