Abubakar’s Ibrahim

The runner-up in the controversial Sept. 3rd Kogi State People’s Democratic Party, PDP Governorship Primary, Alh. Abubakar Ibrahim has shed light on his reasons for challenging it’s outcome in court. His Campaign Organisation said his decision to run to the temple of justice was to reclaim his mandate and not to ask for nullification of the primary as wrongly postulated in some quarters.

Abubakar, who filed a case in a Kogi State High Court Lokoja earlier in the week said he won the election based on rules guiding the process. The first son of former Governor Ibrahim Idris made the clarification during a discussion with some journalists in Abuja.

The aggrieved politician, whose in-law and friend Engr. Musa Wada was declared winner by the Governor Ahmed Fintiri led Electoral Committee, said he went to court purely for altruistic reasons and in the public interest.

“Baring all the family connections, what is happening transcends family affairs. It is about democracy. It is about the people. It is about the truth, law and Justice. It is not a family matter. We are doing this in the interest of our jurisprudence.”

Giving further details, Ibrahim Shaba a lawyer and spokesperson for Abubakar’s Campaign Organisation alleged that the electoral committee “accepted some 600 thumb-printed ballot papers which Engr. Wada claimed to have retrieved from the venue the previous night and added that to his votes.”

The aspirant claimed that the declared winner has not reached out to his group for genuine reconciliation and that his petition to the Appeal Committee of the party has not been replied up till the time of the interaction. He ruled out the possibility of pulling out of the PDP, and said he would rather reman there and continue his quest for justice.

It would be recalled that the Kogi PDP Governorship Primary at the Confluence Stadium in Lokoja was disrupted by gunmen about 2.am Sept 4th. In the pandemonium, aspirants, delegates, party chieftains and journalists scampered to safety. Later in the day, the exercise was concluded at a Guest House in GRA. 13 aspirants contested the election. 10 of the aspirants accepted it’s outcome in good faith. But Sen. Dino Melaiye and Alhaji Abubakar have cried blue murder.