Kogi 2019: PDP picks Hon. Aro as Wada’s running mate
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
has announced Hon. Samuel Bamidele Aro as its deputy governorship candidate in the coming November 16 gubernatorial poll in Kogi state.
The party had consequently submitted the names of Engr. Musa Wada and Hon. Samuel Aro as its candidates for the governorship election to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Hon. Aro, a former member of the House of Representatives who represented Yagba Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, was favoured as running mate after extensive consultation and accord by critical party stakeholders across Kogi state.
He was said to have been nominated by Senator Dino Melaye, one of the aspirants in the September 3 governorship primaries and his choice was unanimously endorsed by majority of the party leaders.
This step by the party followed the upholding of the election of Engr. Musa Wada as the party’s candidate by the Governorship Elections Appeals Committee set up to review the Kogi and Bayelsa states governorship election primaries.
The committee headed by the National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, undertook a comprehensive review of the petition brought before it by aspirants in the Kogi governorship primary election.
The committee received petituons from two out of the 13 aspirants who contested in the Kogi primary, namely; Senator Dino Melaye and Alhaji Abubakar Ibrahim Idris.
No petition was received from any of the aspirants that contested in the Bayelsa state primary where Senator Douye Diri emerged as the party’s governorship candidate.
The committee in its report discovered that some of the votes declared as lost belonged to Senator Dino Melaye, contrary to the 70 votes recorded in his favour by the electoral committee but was not enough to upset Engr. Wada’s winning votes.
In the case of Abubakar Ibrahim Idris, the Committee noted that contrary to the aspirant’s claims that extraneous ballot papers were used at the primary, all the ballot papers used were serially numbered and the declaration made by the electoral committee were in accordance with the serial numbers contained on the ballot papers.
