Crisis Rocks Kogi PDP, As Party Denies Wada Flag, for now

By Akinwale Kasali

Following the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, primaries in Kogi State, in which Engr. Musa Wada emerged as the gubernatorial Candidate of the PDP, fresh crisis is brewing in the party.

But based on the protests by two of the contestants, the plan to give Wada the party’s flag as it’s governorship candidate was aborted.

On Thursday, he had stormed the party’s national secretariat with his supporters to receive the flag. He was disappointed.

Senator Dino Melaye and Abubakar Ibrahim, son of former governor Ibrahim Idris, disregarded the outcome of the PDP primaries. Both have petitioned the PDP National Working Committee, NWC, over the issue.

Thesourceng.com learnt that the aggrieved aspirants stormed the Wadata Plaza in Abuja to register their grievances.

Abubakar scored a total of 710 votes as against Melaye’s 70 votes at the primary poll conducted in Lokoja, the state capital. It started Tuesday, and ended on Wednesday.

Melaye said  he rejected the outcome of the primary on the grounds that all the votes cast in his favour were not counted before gunmen disrupted the exercise.

Melaye submitted his petition to the national secretary of the party,  Senator Ibrahim Tsauri, and demanded for a fresh election.

Wada, who clinched the ticket after garnering a total of 748 votes, made a surprise appearance at the party secretariat, accompanied by a mammoth crowd of supporters and political associates. He pleaded with other contestants to  bury their hatchet and work together for the success of the party at the polls.

His plea, apparently, cut no ice with them, as the party may have decided to look into the case made by the aggrieved parties before crowning him as the flag bearer.