What would have been smooth primaries for election into the Niger State House of Assembly was marred by violence in Edati, the home local government of Alhaji Abdulrahman Enagi, chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. This is even as the primaries into the Kaduna State House of Assembly suffered delay and could not hold till late Monday night.
At the last count, one person was reportedly macheted to death with several others injured while eight vehicles were burnt into ashes in Edati.
Trouble started when it became clear to delegates that plans had been concluded in Minna to impose Enagi’s candidate on the people. Daily Sun gathered that the incumbent lawmaker, seeking re-election, once defeated Enagi in an election for which Enagi had not forgiven him.
The PDP chairman was warned against raising an aspirant to oppose the incumbent lawmaker.
In other places, however, the primaries went on smoothly where majority of the incumbent lawmakers were returned, especially in Agwara Local Government Area, which returned Alhaji Ahmed Bello Agwara with over 85 per cent of the votes cast.
As at yesterday evening, results PDP primaries for Kaduna State House of Assembly were not ready just as the election was conducted in the late hours of Monday.
This development, Daily Sun gathered, was partly because of tense security situation in the state as well as late arrival of election materials from Abuja.
Areas monitored by Daily Sun in both Kaduna North and South showed that actual elections slated for 10 am, did not start until late in the evening.
In Kaduna North, election did not start until about 7pm while in the South, it began at about 8.30 pm, amidst heavy security provided by both the state security outfit “operation Yaki,” Civil Defense Corps, police and men of the State Security Service (SSS).
However, as at the time of filing this report, the returning officer of primaries, Awal Tafoki, told newsmen at the state party secretariat that out of the 34 constituencies where results were being expected, 29 results had been received and were undergoing collation.
This, according to him, had made it impossible to declare the results, which were originally slated for 2pm yesterday.
The returning officer said the remaining five constituencies had encountered one form of problems or the other, saying the primaries for Igabi constituency, where the incumbent Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly, Bashir Aliyu, was battling to retain his seat, was still going on as at yesterday.
This also was blamed on the late arrival of electoral materials, which were said to have arrived the venue of the election at about 9 pm on Monday.
Also in Lere Local Government Area, elections for two constituencies, which could not hold on Monday, had been shifted to Wednesday (today) and to be held in Zaria Local Government Area as organisers were quoted to have said that they could not guarantee the security of the delegates and the aspirants in the area.
Even though the returning officer had refused to release the 29 constituencies in his possession, saying reporters should return by 6pm when he would be ready with the results, one feature that greeted the whole exercise in the state was that majority of those that sailed through the primaries were the incumbent lawmakers.
But in Kawo constituency, a three-time lawmaker, formerly of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Mohammed Sani Iliyasu, who recently defected to the ruling PDP was defeated by Saudanan Badarawa.
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