The much awaited House of Assembly Members primary elections for PDP has come and gone. The rancour and chaos anticipated in several quarters has not happened. The exercise was relatively peaceful, with only pockets of discontent and protestations.

The discontent is stemming from the camps of people who claim they were schemed out by a doctored list of delegates or perhaps, some sort of influence from the state PDP leadership. It remains unclear the extent to which this is true, but investigations by ViewPointNigeria’s correspondent points to the fact that there is indeed a list of chosen delegates who appear sympathetic to the bidding of the PDP leadership, with those with contrary views left out.

The much awaited House of Assembly Members primary elections for PDP has come and gone. The rancour and chaos anticipated in several quarters has not happened. The exercise was relatively peaceful, with only pockets of discontent and protestations. 

The discontent is stemming from the camps of people who claim they were schemed out by a doctored list of delegates or perhaps, some sort of influence from the state PDP leadership. It remains unclear the extent to which this is true, but investigations by ViewPointNigeria’s correspondent points to the fact that there is indeed a list of delegates who appear sympathetic to the bidding of the PDP leadership, with those with opposing views left out.

Whether or not delegates who should feature on the list by virtue of their standing/position in the party were left out, remains hazy but undoubtedly, several high profile individuals including Ambassador Ignatius Longjan, Prof Dakum Shown, Amb Fidelis Tapgun etc have voiced concerns over what they construe as a move by the state PDP leadership to doctor and present a list of candidates who a simply sympathetic to the cause of their chosen candidates.

The key question from the just concluded primaries though is -does the result from this primary election give an indication as to how the December 8th Governorship Primaries (if it happens), would pan out? Specifically, given the fact that most of the people who ran with the backing of Government were successful and those who ran without Government backing either lost or only won by narrow margins (e.g., Istifanus Mwansat, who won by one vote 16 votes to 15 for Boniface). The question then remains, would these delegates do the bidding of the people or would they skew their loyalty towards the State PDP leadership?

Take for instance the candidates who ran with the backing of Government -and who ultimately won their seats convincingly:

Bokkos Constituency – Hon. Titus Alams

Qua’an  Pan South Constituency – Hon. Zainab Dogo

Jos North West Constituency – Hon. Yakubu Choji

Riyom Constituency – Hon. Daniel Dem (House Majority Leader)

Mangu South – Hon Simon Barry

Pengana Constituency – Hon Ezekiel Afon

Barkin Ladi Constituency – Hon Peter Gadyeng

Jos East Constituency – Hon. Mary Adargar

Dengi Constituency – Khadijah Zungum 

Wase Constituency – Dayyuba Dauda

Mangu North Constituency – Ayuba Gofwan

Kangke Constituency – Jacob Kassem

Mikang Constituency – Naanlong Daniel Gapyil

Only in Pankshin and Langtang were there pockets of offsets -where Hon. Boniface of Pankshin South (who is generally said to be backed by the State Leadership) tried without luck to offset the incumbent Hon. Istifanus Caleb Mwansat who was the choice candidate of most of Pankshin South.

In the end, Mwansat who was running with the backing of Prof. Dakum Shown (who is currently running an anti-Government campaign to move the Governorship of the state to the Southern Senatorial Zone) won his seat by the skin of his teeth. 

The above begs the question – can any candidate actually fight Government machinery on 8th December. Does anyone have the where-without to put up a strong fight? Has Prof Dakum Shown and his group done enough to woo delegates to their camp? Would it simply be a walkover for the Government? 

Few people whom ViewPointNigeria spoke to after the primaries, say that the outcome from these elections vindicate Dr. Haruna Dabin. They claim that the results of the primaries shows that he was schemed out simply to pave way for a softer landing for a particular candidates.

For full results of winners of the respective seats, see earlier reports by ViewPointNigeria, at: 

http://www.viewpointnigeria.com/politics-mob/item/1390-initial-results-of-pdp-primaries-for-house-of-assembly-members-declared

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What we can learn from results of the just concluded Plateau House of Assembly primaries