PDP raises campaign committees for Kogi, Bayelsa governorship elections
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has set up national campaign committees for the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states, scheduled for November 21 and December 5, 2015, respectively.
The Kogi State campaign committee has Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu as Chairman; PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) Secretary Senator Walid Jibril as Deputy Chairman, while the party’s National Legal Adviser, Barr. Victor Kwon is the Secretary.
The Kogi committee also has the former Senate President, Senator David Mark, seven PDP state governors and other key stakeholders as members.
PDP national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh in a statement yesterday said the Bayelsa State campaign committee has Acting BoT Chairman, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed as Chairman, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as Deputy Chairman, while the Deputy National Secretary of the party, Barr. Onwe Solomon Onwe serves as Secretary.
According to the statement, also on the Bayelsa Committee are Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio; House Minority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor; four PDP state governors and other critical stakeholders. The National Assembly elections petition tribunal sitting in Kaduna, under the chairmanship of Justice Abdulhamid Mohammed Yakubu, yesterday upheld the election of Barrister Mohammed Musa Soba of the All Progressives Congress (APC) representing Soba Federal Constituency.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Barrister Ibrahim Khalid Mustapha, had challenged Governors Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi and Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola of Oyo and Osun states have advocated sustenance of the wind of change being effected in the country by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
While Ajimobi warned that non-adherence to party supremacy and discipline,
“The NWC also approved that all state chairmen, senators and members of the House of Representatives from the respective zones of the two states are automatic members of the committees. The date for the National flag-off of the gubernatorial campaigns in the two states will be announced in due course. Barrister Soba’s election at tribunal on grounds that he (Soba) gave false information to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and also did not resign his employment with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) before contesting the said election. He therefore prayed the tribunal to nullify the election and order for a re-run.
The tribunal, in its judgment delivered by Justice Paul Uche Uhuo dismissed the petition and upheld the election of Barrister Soba on grounds that the petition lacks merit. as witnessed recently in the National Assembly, portends great danger for the polity, Aregbesola noted that the change mantra that heralded Buhari’s government was an idea whose time had come.
The duo bared their minds on the occasion of the Distinguished Personality lecture of the Department of Political Science and Diplomatic Studies of Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State.