Ribadu, Modi reject Adamawa APC governorship primary

Two of the three governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State, Mahmood Halilu Ahmed (Modi) and Nuhu Ribadu, have said the conduct of the governorship primary across the state Friday through Saturday was so flawed that no result from it could be acceptable to them.

In separate press briefings Saturday morning,  both aspirants insisted that the primary did not take place anywhere in the state and that they were perplexed that some results were already being bandied.

Modi who spoke at his ward in Yola town as the results of the primary were being collated at the APC state headquarters in Jimeta,  asserted that the entire process was fraudulent and its result could not stand even in a Banana Republic.

Proclaiming that he would reject the result of the primary even if he was declared winner,  Modi said,  “The guidelines were flouted so much that an electoral officer who supervised the exercise in Mubi North (Governor Muhammed Jibrilla’s home local government area) announced the result of the election and declared one of the aspirants winner on camera, something which should only be done by the chief returning officer.”

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Reiterating that the APC governorship primary did not take place in Adamawa State,  Modi said,  “We are shocked that they now say they are collating result when no election was held.  I condemn the exercise in its entirety. It isn’t just that it lacks credibility, the election didn’t happen.”

Nuhu Ribadu sounded the same way during his own press briefing, conducted just before noon Saturday at his campaign office in Jimeta, Yola, contending that no election took place anywhere in Adamawa State and it was therefore impossible to declare any result.

“Thousands of our supporters trooped to voting centres across the state, but there was no election,  no officials to attend to them and no election materials,” Nuhu Ribadu said,  reiterating during a question and answer section that some of such voters waited as far into Saturday morning as 3 am just to see if any official would turn up for the election to no avail.

He said he and his team were shocked to hear of collation of result by sunrise Saturday,  adding, “The whole thing is incredible.  How can you conduct a direct primary election in the night? It’s just not possible.”

He said the questionable exercise was a test of the credibility of the officials of the committee sent to conduct the primary election and urged the national leadership of the APC to intervene.

“The NWC should step in and save our party from this embarrassing situation. We demand immediate cancellation of the process.  The electoral committee should be disbanded,” he said.

The electoral committee was yet to react to the allegations by the time this report was being filled Saturday afternoon.

Modi, Nuhu Ribadu and Muhammed Jibrilla (Bindow) were the three aspirants entered for the Adamawa State governorship primary.