BAUCHI CPC CRISIS DEEPENS

The crisis that engulfed the Bauchi State chapter of the opposition Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) as regards who is the party's gubernatorial flag bearer in Thursday's gubernatorial election in the state has taken a new dimension as four people are claiming the ticket as at yesterday, Sunday.

Addressing newsmen in his house, Sadiq Mahmud declared that he is the right person to be the candidate, saying every other person parading himself as the candidate of the party is doing so at his own risk. In the same vein, Nuhu Gidado declared that he has a court order confirming him as the candidate and not any other person.

Also, Mohammed Dewu, at a press conference held at the NUJ Press Centre, Bauchi yesterday declared that he is the candidate of the party and will stand election on Thursday thereby calling on all supporters and lovers of the CPC to come out en mass to vote for the party at the elections.

Few minutes after Dewu addressed the press, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar whose name was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the national leadership of the party declared a press conference yesterday that nobody can snatch the mandate from him.

Sadiq Mahmud, during the press chat, explained that there was no where the party primaries was concluded and so nobody could claim he was duly returned by the party members as the gubernatorial candidate of the party, a position Yusuf Maitama Tuggar dismissed, stating that there was a primary election held in the state, which he won.

Tuggar also alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Bauchi State government was the brain behind the seemingly endless crisis in the CPC. He explained that there was a latest court ruling on the previous court rulings obtained earlier by two other candidates, Dewu and Gidado from other courts in Abuja and Bauchi. He said INEC only recognized a candidate whose name was forwarded to it by the party, stressing that it was his name that was forwarded and was still with INEC. But Nuhu Gidado claimed that as at the time he spoke to newsmen, there was no contrary court order setting aside the order he got at the Federal High Court sitting in Bauchi, declaring therefore that he was the candidate of the CPC for the gubernatorial election, calling on all his supporters to intensify campaigns for his victory.

To buttress his claim, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar declared that he was the only CPC guber natorial candidate who had structures all over the state. He appealed to supporters of CPC not to relent in their effort in seeking for change urging them to come out en mass to vote for CPC.

Meanwhile, Chairman of a faction of the party in the state, Shehu Barau Ningi revealed that there was a plan by the opposition party in the state, which allegedly forged a letter, purportedly from the CPC presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari praising the state Governor, Isa Yuguda for allowing people of the state to vote freely without intimidation and advising the people of the state to vote people and party of their choice not necessarily the CPC in the state, saying that Buhari had nothing to do with the letter and would never involve himself in such act.

Ningi disclosed that it was ridiculous, saying the suspects distributing the letters had been apprehended by the police in the state and had named one of the governor's aide as the person who instructed them to distribute the letter, advising people of the state not to pay attention to such ridiculous acts from the opposition.