Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu and seven other aspirants out of the fourteen that have indicated their interests for the Adamawa State Governorship election under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stepped down from the race in the early hours of Friday.
The decision was reached following a meeting between the aspirants and the president of the Senate, David Mark and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to douse tension generated by the large number of aspirants preparing for the primaries to be held saturday.
The meeting which was held at the banquet hall of the presidential Villa Abuja started at about 10pm and ended in the early hours of Friday.
The president of the Senate, David Mark along with other officials of the party were able to reach a compromise with the aspirants and pruned the number of those contesting to six, also agreed that those who have agreed to go ahead with the contest would not be eligible to contest in the 2015 election.
Under the new arrangement, those who will take part in the primaries scheduled for saturday are the former Political Adviser to President Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak; former Military administrator of Lagos state, Buba Marwa, Ahmed Modibbo, Dr. Umar Ardo, Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri, and Jerry Kumdisi.
Those who have withdrawn from Saturday primary election include Nuhu Ribadu; Auwal Tukur; Aliyu Idi Hong, Andrawus Sawa; James Barka; Gen. Aliyu Kama; Markus Gundiri and Abubakar Girei.
Other decisions reached at the meeting were that only those that stepped down now can contest for the party’s governorship election ticket in 2015, with more consideration to be given to Adamawa Central senatorial district which had never produced a governor of the state.
Any aspirant who fails to win the party’s ticket in Saturday’s primary election, the meeting, also agreed must support the party’s flag bearer in the October 11th election.
The Chairman of the Adamawa State chapter of the party, Joel Madaki told State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, that “Fourteen aspirants contesting for the position earlier has now reduced to six aspirants due to this meeting. It is a very welcome idea. Nobody was forced to step them. Those who stepped down did so voluntarily in order to wait to contest for the position in 2015.”
“The six aspirants contesting this election are Ahmed Gulak, Buba Marwa, Ahmed Modibbo, Dr. Umar Ardo, Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri, and Jerry Kumdisi.” He added
The former Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, who is contesting for the ticket on Saturday, hailed the decision arrived at the meeting as ‘fantastic’.
“The outcome of the meeting was fantastic. We met as family members of PDP, even before coming here all the aspirants in Adamawa have unanimously resolved that after the primaries, in a free, fair primaries, anybody that emerges will get our support.”
“Today, in this meeting, the number of the aspirants have been drastically reduced to six, which is manageable. I am contesting, Gen. Marwa is contesting, Ahmed Modibbo is contesting, Dr. Umar Ardo is contesting, Hon. Jerry Kumdisi is contesting, and Acting Governor Fintiri is contesting.”
“And we have resolved to go into the primaries without rancour, without acrimony and to come out of it as peaceful co-existing members.”
“And at the end of it all, anybody that emerges, we will all queue behind him. And if I emerge as the candidate, they will all queue behind me. It is going to be a family affair and there will be no losers” he said.
Former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, who is among those who withdrew from the race also expressed satisfaction with the decisions reached.
“Peace-building, negotiation, give-and-take, everything went well. We have been given a caveat and one thing we have succeeded in extracting from this meeting is that the meeting started with a preamble that whoever is going to contest and if he happens to win as a governor, he will not have the right to contest the 2015 election.”
“Some of us think that our aspirations, our ambition, our vision for Adamawa is a long term and more articulate vision and not a stop-gap six month” he said.
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