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Two of the three governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State, Mahmood Halilu Ahmed (Modi) and Nuhu Ribadu, have rejected the governorship primary election held in the state Friday through Saturday, saying the process was flawed and that the result would not be acceptable.
In separate press briefings Saturday morning, both aspirants insisted that the primary did not take place anywhere in the state and that they were surprised that some results were already being bandied.
Modi who spoke at his ward in Yola town as the results of the primary were being collated at the APC state headquarters in Jimeta, said: “The guidelines were flouted so much that an electoral officer who supervised the exercise in Mubi North (Governor Muhammed Jibrilla’s home local government area) announced the result of the election and declared one of the aspirants winner on camera, something which should only be done by the chief returning officer.”
He added: “We are shocked that they now say they are collating result when no election was held. I condemn the exercise in its entirety. It isn’t just that it lacks credibility, the election didn’t happen.”
Nuhu Ribadu sounded the same way during his own press briefing, conducted just before noon Saturday
Speaking at at his campaign office in Jimeta, Yola, Ribadu said: “Thousands of our supporters trooped to voting centres across the state, but there was no election, no officials to attend to them and no election materials.”
According to Ribadu, such voters waited as far into Saturday morning as 3 am just to see if any official would turn up for the election to no avail.
He said he and his team were shocked to hear of collation of result by sunrise Saturday, adding, “The whole thing is incredible. How can you conduct a direct primary election in the night? It’s just not possible.”
He said the questionable exercise was a test of the credibility of the officials of the committee sent to conduct the primary election and urged the national leadership of the APC to intervene.
“The NWC should step in and save our party from this embarrassing situation. We demand immediate cancellation of the process. The electoral committee should be disbanded,” he said.
Modi, Nuhu Ribadu and Muhammed Jibrilla (Bindow) are the three governorship aspirants in the Adamawa State governorship primary.