The defeated Governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe State, Jamilu Isiaku Gwamna has led hundreds of thousands of his supporters to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Reacting to the outcome of the just concluded Governorship primary election of the PDP where he was defeated along with 11 others by Senator Usman Bayero Nafada, Jamilu Gwamna said the outcome was a daylight robbery on democracy in Gombe State.
Jamilu Gwamna, who described the exercise as a charade, said the voting was carried out by delinquents and not delegates and vowed that he and his supporters will work for President Muhammadu Buhari’s return in the 2019 general elections.
He said, “having considered the situation and in consultation with our people, I felt our interest will not be protected in the PDP and so we sought an alternative which is the APC”.
He explained that he was never in the race for his selfish interest but for the people who called on him to serve them in the capacity of a Governor.
In his words, ” I am not seeking this position just for myself, but the people called on me to do so and I accepted the call. Our interest now can only be protected in the APC and we’ll assiduously work for the victory of president Muhammadu Buhari and Mohammed Inuwa Yahaya to become the Governor of Gombe State”.
With this development, there is high possibility of mass defections of PDP members to other parties.
While the aspirants are angry over alleged manipulation of the party’s primary election which favoured Usman Bayero Nafada, it is also speculated that most of the executives were not comfortable with Bayero’s emergence as the party’s flag bearer.
Another pointer to this was the fact that apart from the State Chairman of the party and the organising secretary, all others were absent including five of the contestants.
It was also alleged that most of the State party executives had presented their resignation letters which the Governor rejected. Another discomfort for the the aspirants was that the primary election was held at the banquet hall of the Government House.
Usman Bayero Nafada had won the rescheduled election after it was violently disrupted on the first day by 1,104 votes while Jamilu Isyaku Gwamna, the runner up, got a distant 147 votes.
Ahmed Walama and Hassan Muhammadu got 16 votes each. Others were, Bala Bello Tinka 11 votes, Sylvester Audu 7 votes, Alhassan Mohammed Fawu and Ahmed Mohammed Gone 2 votes each while Haruna Garba got 3 votes. Abdulkadir Hamma Saleh and Umar Bello recorded zero votes as announced by the returning officer, Chief Joe Akaka.
