All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirant for Nasarawa West senatorial district in the just-concluded primary of the party, Barrister Labaran Shuaibu Magaji has written to the party’s appeal committee over alleged irregularities that trail the exercise.
Nasarawa West is the senatorial district of the national chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
In the primary conducted on June 4, Magaji was said to have scored 144 votes, while Shehu Ahmed Tukur polled 179 votes to emerge the winner of the exercise.
However, in a petition to the committee dated June 6, 2022, Barr Magaji alleged that fake delegates lists were used to give Tukur victory.
He said the doctored delegates lists were for Nasarawa and Keffi local government areas of the state.
According to him, no clarification was given by officials as to which of the two conflicting delegates list was to be used for the exercise on the election day.
“Surprisingly, upon commencement of the election when the conflicting lists curiously surfaced while the people bearing the names on the said lists were on ground apparently arranged to favor my opponent Arc. Shehu Ahmed Tukur,” he noted.
He said by the party’s guidelines, only LGA delegates who emerged from a valid congress and voted at the primary election to elect the candidate for the House of Assembly as well as the House of Representative in their respective constituencies are eligible to participate in the senatorial primary.
He also averred that by the party’s guideline and constitution, it is only one delegates list which emanated from a valid congress that can be legitimately used for the conduct of the party primary elections, adding that the situation was not the case in the last primary in Nasarawa West.
The aspirant said despite his protests against the use of the fake delegates lists, the electoral officials went ahead to declare Tukur winner of the poll.
In the petition, Magaji urged the committee to declare that “both the two (2) separate purported delegates list for Nasarawa and Keffi Local Government being a product of illegality is null and void.
“That the Seventy-Five (75) person’s votes and the 50 votes for Nasarawa and Keffi Local Government Area respectfully be declared null and void.
” That the said Purported Seventy-Five delegate’s votes from Nasarawa LGA and 50 delegates vote from Keffi LGA is to be expunged from the number of votes cast for ARCH. SHEHU TUKUR having been a product of a process not known by the extant rules, guidelines and laws governing the process of nominating delegates for the exercise under reference.
“That I am the winner of the primary election for the selection of the Senatorial candidate for Nasarawa West Senatorial District held on the 4th day of June 2022 having satisfied the requirement of the law and polled the highest number of valid votes cast in the election.”
