The Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, has put to rest controversy over who the Commission recognises as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kano State between Muhammad Abacha and Sadiq Wali.
The Commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Risque Shehu, told newsmen, Thursday that as far as they are concerned, the elections conducted by Shehu Sagagi is the authentic elections.
Professor Risque Shehu said, “as at the time the PDP Primary was conducted, Shehu Sagagi was the one recognized by the law as the State Chairman of the party in Kano and is also the only election that we sent our observers”.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, who was responding to questions as to who they recognized as the authentic candidate of the party while briefing the media, said, “although the primary is purely party affair, as far as we are concerned, the elections conducted by Shehu Sagagi was the one we recognized”.
He said some party stalwarts came from Abuja that they were sent from the PDP headquarters to conduct primary elections into the gubernatorial seat of the State, but they came without a location of where the elections would hold.
“But later Shehu Sagagi, the state-recognized PDP Chairman by law as at that time, came with the same letter from the party headquarters and with locations and we sent our observers who monitored their elections”.
“And later in the day another team of observers claiming they came from the party headquarters came and asked us to send our team of observers to witness their primary elections but we declined because we told them we are acting on what the law says”.
Abacha and Wali had emerged winners of two parallel PDP primaries in the state, with each of them claiming to be the authentic candidate of the party in the state.