SOKOTO 2012: HOW GOV. WAMAKKO WON PDP PRIMARY

BY ABDALLAH EL-KUREBE
Wamakko beat the odds when he got the PDP ticket on a platter five years ago. Getting the ticket for a second term on the platform of the party was, however, not so easy.

Governor Aliyu Wamakko's aspiration for a second term ticket on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has not been an easy ride. At least, so it seemed on paper until the day of battle last Saturday.

What seemed at the beginning to be a smooth ride for the governor became a rancorous fight for Wamakko as his main challengers Senator Abubakar Umar Gada and former Minister of Sports, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman threw everything into the battle.

All methods, including media war, petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the PDP national secretariat were thrown in the Governor's face.

A petition to the EFCC alleging fraud in the award of contract for the Independent Power Project, IPP; surfaced, a petition to the PDP alleging anti-party activities by Wamakko in Kebbi and Zamfara states was lodged, and yet another alleging that the Masters Degree awarded by Ahmadu Bello University to the governor, was a farce was thrown in the face of the Governor.

Despite the petitions the Governor and his main challengers, Gada and Sulieman were all cleared on December 9 by the PDP gubernatorial screening panel which sat in Kaduna .

The clearance by the screening committee pitched the aspirants against each other for the primary election which was conducted on December 17.

Gov Wamakko
A day after his clearance Suleiman's staged a rally in Sokoto which remarkably attracted some prominent stakeholders in the opposition, notably the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN and the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC. Among those at the rally were the ACN's governorship candidate during the last governorship election, Alhaji Isa Bajini Galadima and that of the CPC. Some said that it was searching for support in the wrong quarters.

Before then supporters of Gada on their part had sought to gain the preeminence with an announcement that the state executive of the party had been dissolved. Their effort in positioning a different executive with separate offices was, however, botched by the Police which sealed up the office.

Wamakko on his part consolidated his support among all members of the National Assembly from Sokoto state, all members of the Sokoto State House of Assembly, all Chairmen of local government councils and most of the local government party chairmen.

The embattled Governor laid siege at the door of most, if not all, of the delegates and in the process, disallowed penetration by his opponents, Gada and Suleiman.

The Sokoto PDP Gubernatorial Primary Election Panel was headed by the Minister of State for Education, Chief Ezenwo Nyenom Wike. On arrival the team visited the Police, State Security Service, SSS and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC soliciting their support for a successful and hitch-free primary.

The Panel met with stakeholders at the Presidential Lodge where the panel chairman told the gathering that they were not in Sokoto to do anyone's bidding but to conduct a free and fair primary election.

D Day
The venue was Ginginya Stadium and the time set for the primary election by the panel was 8.00am.

Wamakko arrived the venue by 8.03am while the panel arrived at 10.38am. Before the process began, the panel chairman, Wike requested the aspirants to order their supporters to remove their posters pasted at the venue of the primary.

Election began immediately after the accreditation of the 981 delegates. At the end of the election around 4.33pm, Wamakko was declared by the panel chairman as winner of the primary, having scored 951 votes. Gada and Suleiman scored no vote.

But Gada and Suleiman, who claimed they boycotted the election, wouldn't agree. They claimed that there was no primary election because, according to them, the entire process was flawed.

At a press briefing, Chairman of Senator Gada Campaign Organisation, Dr. Mahe Dange said 'We feel there was no election. We totally reject the primary. If you want to see the real politicians, they are with us. We told the panel leader and after listening to us he promised to meet the other camps and call us to meet and reconcile our differences but this did not happen.'

'We will send our petition to the PDP headquarters and urge it, in the interest of the party, to cancel the primary. It is full of irregularities; all parties are not represented. The whole thing is full of falsefood.'

In a protest letter to the panel's chairman the Director General of Yusuf Suleiman Campaign Organisation, Amb. Ladan Shuni alleged that their supporters' 'membership cards were confiscated and taken away by the state government and party officials' and that ward membership registers were taken away by the government, an allegation that State party Secretary, Aminu Bello Sokoto says 'is a defeatist allegation that has no basis whatsoever.'

Their allegations nonetheless, Wamakko is building up for the real battle ahead in the main election proper when his foes have one last opportunity of stopping him from a second term.