CONFUSION OVER BAUCHI PDP GUBER RUNNING MATE

There is uncertainty over the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial running mate in Bauchi State as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC's) list pasted on its notice board as at yesterday features one Ibrahim Abdullahi in the place of Sagir Aminu Saleh, submitted by the party.

The ruling PDP in Bauchi State, according to its Publicity Secretary, Mohammed Sani Al-Amin had petitioned INEC when the list of candidates was made public and pasted on the INEC notice board with the name of Sagir Aminu Saleh omitted while another name, Ibrahim Abdullahi appeared on the list as the gubernatorial running mate to Isa Yuguda in the election.

INEC Resident Commissioner in state, Senator Iliya Audu while briefing news men last Friday prior to the postponed National Assembly elections had admitted to the error, saying that substituting the name of Aminu Saleh as the running mate came from INEC and promised that the error would be corrected immediately.

Audu said, 'it was not a deliberate thing by INEC but it was an error and you will agree with me that error can come at any stage of an assignment, we have noticed it and it will be corrected as soon as possible.' In his reaction to the development, when contacted yesterday, Publicity Secretary of the Bauchi State PDP, Mohammed Sani Al-Amin said: 'As I am talking to you now, the party has not received any official communication from INEC in spite of the fact that we wrote them officially when we noticed the error.'

Sani Al-Amin, however, promised to cross check with INEC today so that the party would know the next line of action to take to correct the error, declaring that, ' as far as we in the PDP are concerned, our gubernatorial running mate is Sagir Aminu Saleh and nothing can change that and we are confident that INEC will correct the error before the gubernatorial elections.'

He added that, 'there is no cause for alarm, we are up and doing about the issue and I assure that it will be corrected since it was not the party that committed the error nor gave a contrary name in place of that of Aminu Saleh, INEC has no right to change our candidate for us.'

At the INEC office in Bauchi, the Public Affairs officer declined comment, saying it was only the REC that could give official comment on the issue.