Bala Jibrin, Ali Pate and Yakubu Lame at the press conference
AS controversies continue to trail conduct of the Bauchi state All Progressive Congress (APC), gubernatorial primary, three of the aspirants, Professor Mohammed Ali Pate, Dr Ibrahim Yakubu Lame and Captain Muhammad Bala Jibrin who are contesting for the party’s ticket with the incumbent governor of the state, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar have jointly called on the national Secretariat of the party to as matter of urgency stop the conduct of the exercise just as they rejected what was done in the state on Monday.
While jointly addressing Journalists late Monday evening at the NUJ Press Center, the three aspirants alleged that the exercise purportedly conducted on Monday was marred by many irregularities including the late arrival of the electoral committee members that were supposed to be in the state on Sunday to conduct the election thereby necessitating its postponement to Monday.
They also alleged that election materials were distributed to local government areas very late in the evening thereby “making it impossible for the election to hold in many centres across the state on Monday as scheduled”.
Aside that, the trio further alleged that the actual number of the election materials were not delivered to the various voting centers across the state a development they said was a deliberate move to disenfranchise APC members loyal to them.
They therefore appealed to the national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to dissolve the electoral committee and form a new one that will organise an exercise that would be accepted by all the contestants and other APC stakeholders in the state declaring that unless that was done they will not participate in the exercise any longer.