2019 Taraba Guber: 168 Ward reps. Picked form for UN official

Ahead of the 2019 general election, representatives of 168 wards in Taraba state has picked the nomination and expression of interest forms for a United Nations (UN) Commission official of the Federal Government, Alhaji Aliyu Umar.

The group endorsed Surveyor, Alhaji Aliyu Umar, a former civil servant, Director, Maritime Services and Geo-Information Technology and currently the Desk Officer for Nigeria’s Extended Continental Shelf Project in New York whom the group said will redeem the state from maladministration.

The representatives led by Jalo, former commissioner for Information in Taraba State Kabiru Jalo said Surveyor Umar is the sole governorship candidate in the state, though with 14 other aspirants vying for the same position under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking to Journalists at the Party National Secretariat on Thursday in Abuja during the purchase of the forms, Kabiru Jalo who is the Director General of the campaign team said that the state which has been under turbulence in leadership is lucky to have an aspirant in Surveyor Umar who is educated, experienced and exposed to deliver the state as the people’s choice arguing that the state is not politically divided but disagreement among leaders.

According to Jalo, most delegates from the 168 wards of the state had deliberated on the choice of governorship candidate for the APC and finally, settled for Umar.

“We have done something in the state that is unprecedented in the political history of the state. We wouldn’t let it go unnoticed because it is important to us, in trying to do what is right, in trying to deepening our democracy especially in Taraba state.

“We came under a political association in Taraba state that is known as New Taraba Agenda. Like I said earlier, we have done something that is unprecedented. We came together, brought in stakeholders from across the state and looked around independently bringing in objective minds to look at the issues and determined way forward.

“We brought in representatives from the 168 wards to come together and endorse a candidate that can move the state forward. So what we have done is a complete different approach to what we used to have.

Our candidate is the candidate of the people, we came together and asked him to run; of course every politician will say that people asked him or her to run but in this case we tried to make it real by bringing in the people to deliberate and search for a fit candidate.

“So, truly in our own case our candidate was pushed forward by the people and for the very first time we have a coalition which comprise the 168 wards in all the local government with one person representing each of the ward to ask our principal to step forward to run for the office of the governor under the APC.

Our principal accepted the call from the people to step forward and declared to run for the office, so we came here to pick the form for him”, he noted.

When asked to comment on the reported division in Taraba APC, Jalo said: “The elite might be divided but we can tell you that the people who form the hub of the party in the state are not divided. The division among the elites is inconsequential to our people”.

Jalo noted that the State supports the Direct Primaries envisaged by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party approved by the National Executive Committee (NEC), solidly standing and supporting President Muhammadu Buhari and the party leadership led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.