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Duke, Al-Mustapha, Ezekwesili win presidential tickets

By Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna), Ayodele Afolabi (Ado-Ekiti) and George Opara, Sodiq Omolaoye (Abuja)
08 October 2018   |   4:10 am
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) yesterday elected former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, as its presidential candidate for the 2019 general elections.

Dr Oby Ezekwesili

APC insists on Shehu Sani’s automatic ticket in Kaduna
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) yesterday elected former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, as its presidential candidate for the 2019 general elections.

The Returning Officer, Dr. Abdul Ishaq, who declared the results at the party’s national convention held at Old Parade Ground, Abuja, said while Duke polled 812 votes to defeat his close rival, former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, who polled 611 votes, Mr. John Dara, former Special Assistant to former Defence Minister, Lt.-Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, scored 104 votes.

He also affirmed that that former Ambassador and former Minister, Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher, scored 72 votes; former Ambassador, Felix Osakwe, scored 10 votes while the number of invalid votes was 63.

In the same vein, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, yesterday emerged the presidential candidate of Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN).

Chairman, PPN Presidential Primary Election Committee, Dare Adekolu, who announced the results, said Al-Mustapha polled 3,564,262 votes to beat other presidential aspirants.

Meanwhile, the national headquarters of the APC has said that Senator Shehu Sani remains its only senatorial candidate for Kaduna Central.

It also dismissed the primary elections held at the weekend declaring Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s political adviser, Malam Uba Sani, as the winner of the senatorial ticket.

The Acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Yekini Nabena, who gave the clarification in an interview yesterday, pointed out that the primaries, which cleared Senator Sani as the sole candidate has been foreclosed.

In a related vein, former Minister of Education and Convener of the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has been adopted as presidential candidate on the platform of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) after a voice affirmation by party members yesterday during the party’s national convention in Abuja.

Ezekwesili, in her acceptance speech, said declaring to run for the office of the president is the toughest decision she ever had to make.

She said her decision to contest in 2019 presidential election was borne out of the inequality and insecurity in the land.

Meanwhile, human rights activist and senator representing Kaduna Central Zone, Shehu Sani, has lost the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial ticket in Kaduna State to the Governor’s Political Adviser, Uba Sani, at the weekend.

The first primary was organised after the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party had earlier declared that Senator Sani had been the cleared and given automatic ticket, but it took the intervention of the governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, before another primary was organised and Uba Sani declared as winner.

In the results announced on Saturday night, Uba Sani polled 2,088 votes; Usman Ibrahim had 129 votes, Sani Saleh 55 votes, Shamsudeen Giwa six votes and Shehu Sani 15 votes.

However, El-Rufai, who took his protest to President Muhammadu Buhari, said “disloyal” individuals like the serving senator did not deserve getting the ticket of the ruling party.

But Shehu Sani, who boycotted the second primaries, had alleged that the governor was organising a “kangaroo” primary election in the senatorial district.

He warned his agents and supporters to stay off the venue of the exercise.

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