Intrigues over Nasarawa PDP guber struggle

The governorship primary, which was conducted on December 8 saw eight contenders jostling for the PDP ticket at the end of which Yusuf Agabi was declared winner. Since then, the party has been enmeshed in crisis largely due to protests by one of the aspirants, former information minister Labaran Maku. Of the eight aspirants that […]

The governorship primary, which was conducted on December 8 saw eight contenders jostling for the PDP ticket at the end of which Yusuf Agabi was declared winner.
Since then, the party has been enmeshed in crisis largely due to protests by one of the aspirants, former information minister Labaran Maku.
Of the eight aspirants that contested for the primary, analysts say it was difficult to find more than two who were actually in the race for the ticket. In this regard, Agabi and Maku were the ones the front runners.
The crisis from the onset
First, there were efforts to prune down the list of contestants because stakeholders sensed that some persons were in the race not for the ticket, but just to stop someone of their tribesmen from picking it. The Eggon tribe, and their neighbouring Mada in Nasarawa-North, a zone which has been pushing for power-shift, had the highest number of contestants, flaunting seven of the nine initial aspirants.
There were separate consensus arrangements made by the two tribes, to produce a consensus candidate to challenge Nasarawa-South which had only Aliyu Akwe Doma, who failed in his re-election bid in 2011 and Agabi, a former director in the federal civil service.
Eggonland, earlier in July was split when two separate fora announced two different candidates screened to contest the PDP ticket. While Senator Solomon Ewuga (PDP, Nasarawa-North) emerged after a screening conducted by Eggon Stakeholders for the Actualisation of Eggon Candidate in 2015, another group selected Labaran Maku.
While the body which unveiled Ewuga conducted its exercise at Nasarawa-Eggon, the traditional headquarters of Eggon, the pro-Maku group held its meeting at Endehu, a few kilometres away. The two meetings took place simultaneously.
Those who selected Maku were part of the 15-man panel composed for the consensus arrangement, but they opted out to form a parallel body. It was said that they acted that way because they reasoned that Ewuga was only out to stop Maku who, they thought, had a brighter chance, by virtue of his being an ex-member of Jonathan’s cabinet, from becoming the first Christian and an Eggon to govern the state.     
Then came the Mada consensus; an arrangement which was shrouded in secrecy. Information filtered in that a forum of elders of Mada extraction conducted the selection, but they turned out to be clergies. They selected Dameshi Barau Luka, Al-Makura’s deputy who dumped the APC for the PDP to become governor if the impeachment plotted by his new party had succeeded.
A month later, the Eggon aspirants returned to their intrigues and scheming with Chris Mamman, leader of Eggon Cultural and Development Association (ECDA), joining the race for the ticket when his boss, Senator Ewuga was also aspiring.
Stakeholders said in hush tones that while Ewuga came to stop Maku, Mamman, his boy, came to stop him from stopping Maku.
A source close to Eggon leadership said: “Chris is Ewuga’s boy, but he is the tribe’s leader first. He was not happy that the tribe’s bright chances to produce the governor by virtue of Maku’s closeness to President Jonathan was turning into a mere dream because Ewuga decided to contest for the PDP governorship ticket, thereby splitting Eggon votes. So, Chris had to come in to stop Ewuga.”  
Mamman was attacked during a meeting of the three Eggon aspirants at the palace of the paramount ruler of Eggon, Bala Angbazo. The meeting, called in order to adopt a consensus candidate, failed to achieve its goal. In fact, mid-way some angry youths stormed the venue and unleashed violence.
In the southern zone, Doma’s chances appeared promising, owing largely to the overwhelming support of delegates from his Alago tribe.  But it was alleged that he came into the race to stop Yusuf Agabi because he was never going to get any vote other than from the Alagos in an election that people from the whole state would participate in. Retired Col. Jibrin Bala Yakubu was, in turn,  said to have entered the race to stop Doma.
Agabi, a minority from the south, had a better chance of attracting votes from across the state, like Maku. The race became a close one between the two men. At the end, Agabi picked the ticket, having had only Doma and Col. Yakubu to contend with from his zone, while Maku lost, after fighting hard to shake off the threats from his kinsmen- Ewuga, Mamman, Luka and Abdul.
The crisis after the primary
Agabi polled 214 to defeat seven other aspirants including Maku who polled 161 to come second, and Doma polled 129 to come third. Ewuga came fourth with 31 votes, while John Michael Abdul, came fifth with 28 votes.
Luka, got 12 votes to come a distant sixth, while former Zanfara State military administrator, Col. Yakubu got three votes. Chris Mamman polled one vote to come eighth.
But Maku has since rejected the outcome of the exercise, alleging that there were massive irregularities. He called on the PDP national leadership to cancel the result of the primary election  and conduct a fresh one.
In one of his protest statements issued by Zakari Edege, director of publicity of his campaign organisation, Maku predicted that if the electoral appeal panel in Nasarawa failed to listen to him, “the success of the 2015 general election” might be threatened.
 “The PDP in Nasarawa State wrote to the headquarters on Nov. 28, to protest against the sudden change of delegates’ lists from Keana, Obi, Lafia, Akwanga, and Nasarawa Eggon local governments,” he said, adding: “The Chairman of the Electoral Panel, Sen. Adolphus Wabara, following the protest, insisted that he had instructions from the national secretariat to use the altered delegates list for the primaries.”
Maku said he “wondered why there were separate delegates lists for the conduct of State and National Assembly primaries and the governorship primary’’.
While alleging that the conduct of the primary election did not conform with the party’s guidelines, Maku said there was over voting as the number of ballot papers exceeded that ofthe delegates.  He further alleged that the delegates were threatened and coerced into voting for Agabi.
“It is on this premise that I urge you most respectfully to use your good and exalted office to intervene by cancelling the gubernatorial primary election held in Nasarawa state. I also urge you to conduct another primary election so as to ensure that a free and fair election is conducted in the state.”
But Agabi on Tuesday dismissed Maku’s allegations through a statement from his campaign office, signed by his media officer Jerry Ambi Akungba
The statement read in part: “Contrary to insinuations by Mr. Labaran Maku that delegates were not accredited, the accreditation of delegates was transparently done in the glare of security men, journalists and agents of the various aspirants including the agent of Mr. Labaran Maku.
“The process was never frustrating because aspirants were duly notified of the Nasarawa Township Stadium venue for the governorship primary election more than one week before and the enthusiasm shown by delegates and supporters of the aspirants did not indicate any form of frustration.
“The atmosphere at the venue of the primary election,  with adequate security protection for delegates and the courteous treatment given to delegates by the election panel made them feel at home and thus cast their votes with ease and calmness. Such atmosphere could not have provided room for intimidation of delegates to vote for a particular aspirant as alleged by Mr. Labaran Maku.
“While voting got underway, it was Mr. Maku’s supporters with their laptop computer and ipads that were busy posting on the social media that their aspirant, Mr. Labaran Maku, was leading. And so if the process was characterised with irregularities as Mr. Maku will want the world to believe him, his supporters would not have such confidence. It shows there was transparency to the delight of all aspirants and their supporters alike including Mr. Labaran Maku.
“Accordingly, the Yusuf Agabi Campaign Organisation wishes to call on the PDP gubernatorial appeal panel, Nasarawa State to discountenance the issues raised by Mr. Labaran Maku because they are mere tissues of lies.”
Analysts say the crisis is more threatening, considering the extent to which Maku, who is seen as the party’s biggest beneficiary in the state, has gone to make his case. How the party will resolve the matter before tomorrow’s deadline for submission of names of governorship candidates by political parties remains to be seen.