From Abel Leonard
Delegates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Binyeri ward of Mayo Belwa local government in Adamawa State have expressed considerable disquiet over alleged manipulation and doctoring of party primary result in order to favour an anointed candidate.
In a petition seen by our reporter, the delegates said they were piqued and angered by the open show of injustice meted out to the winner of the election, Shehu Hayatu, who won the election with 12 out of 21 votes.
The councillorship primaries were conducted on February 16, 2022 across all the 226 wards of Adamawa State.
The aggrieved delegates who accused the lawmaker representing Binyeri State constituency in Adamawa State House of Assembly, Nashon Gubi as well as the chairman of PDP in Mayo Belwa local government, Hammanjoda Bashir of interfering with the result, vowed to go the whole hug to ensure justice is dissipated on the issue.
In the strong worded petition, the delegates said they elected Shehu Hayatu twice and are ready to elect him again to show that they are solidly behind him.
“We the undersigned delegates of Binyeri ward and our elected councillorship candidate Shehu Hayatu during the just concluded councillorship primaries held on 16 February 2022 held at the ward center in Binyeri in the presence of security and other stakeholders wish to express our disquiet over blatant disregard for section 50 subsection 3 of our party’s constitution.
“We wish to state that Shehu Yerima defeated Samson Yerima with 12 out of the 21 delegates who cast their votes, and in compliance with section 15 sub section 2 (f) and subsection 4 of the PDP constitution as amended and having scored majority lawful votes cast was declared the winner of the PDP councillorship flag bearer as well issued with the certificate of return by the returning officer.
“On conveying the result to Mayo Belwa, local government collation center at the government lodge Mayo Belwa to deliver the result to the local government returning officer, the results were recieved accepted and authenticated thereafter we left.
“We were informed later that the result has been cancelled and a rerun for the ward will be conducted at the local government lodge. Without hesitation, we gathered at Mayo Belwa local government lodge to reelect our candidate as we did in Binyeri ward but were later informed by the local government returning officer that the election of Binyeri ward was maintained with Shehu Hayatu as the winner of PDP councillorship primaries in Binyeri ward.
“We were amazed that the name of Shehu Hayatu was replaced with the name of Samson Yerima today at the secretariat of our great party.
In view of the forgoing, we request for justice to prevail in this regard and we are ready to vote our candidate whenever there is need,” they demanded.
Describing the allegation as fictitious, and handwork of mischief makers, the chairman of PDP in Mayo Belwa local government Hammanjoda Bashir said he has no control over the said election.
“I have no input nor control in anything. I can’t go so low as to try to change any election result and I’m not the electoral umpire who conducted the election.
“The accusation is strange, malicious, laughable and has no basis. I can’t be involved in any such shoddy deal and I have no hand whatsoever in anything that has to do with doctoring of election result,” he said.
Efforts to contact the member representing Nassarawo Binyeri, Nashon Gubi to get his side of the story proved futile as calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages directed to his mobile number were not entertained.
However, the state secretary of the ruling party in Adamawa State, Idris Yahya, while responding to our reporter’s enquiry on the issue said, the challenge has been resolved amicably.
“The delegates from Binyeri ward were here and we met at the conference hall and their concerns have been fully addressed. For now the issue has been nipped in the bud,” he said.
