by Christiana Gokyo, Jos
The Local Government Chairmanship Primaries of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was held on Thursday in 17 local government areas of Plateau State. The Party said it has received results from 13 Local Government Areas of the state as of Friday.
Speaking to our correspondent at the Party Secretariat, the State Organizing Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Gwott Yakubu Chocho, said four local government election results had been received but reports says some were on their way to Jos with the results.
According to him, this was but with the exception of Shendam – where the Primaries could not hold due to some misunderstanding by stakeholders there as the conduct of the ward congress.
He said, the Party Chairman, Christopher Audu Manship, has sent some officials to conduct the ward congress, which has been under key watch, under observation, and believes it has been conducted.
He explained that, the Shendam election was also taking place as at the time of this interview (Friday), saying that “Quan-pan Local Government Election Primaries did not end up well, but I have not received any ugly official report from there but only rumour.
“I know, sometimes they said ‘rumour has some elements of truths.’ The rumour said election did not end well in Quan-pan, where there were these uprisings of crises to that effect. That was what I was told, even though, it has not come to me physically but heard of it,” he stated.
Speaking earlier, one of the Government appointees, who spoke to our correspondent in anonymity, said “Election did not take place in Quan-pan because the Transition Committee Chairman, who is also contesting, deprived other aspirants, delegates who may not be in his support and political appointees entrance into the venue of the election, and brought some security personnel to surround the premises not to allow them in.
“That was the reason why the youths got angry, broke into the venue, asked the securities to live and scattered and destroyed everything and attacked some of the people, including the Transition Committee Chairman, who is currently hospitalized with serious injuries sustained,” he explained.
Hon. Chocho further urged that, “As the faithful Party in Nigeria, I will not subscribe to any youth or whoever to go into a different spirit other than the spirit that we know I’m together with.
“The PDP is a party that believes in unity, believes in oneness and believes in togetherness; and, if it continues this way, I want to assure you that we have less problems,” he stated.
He called on every youth and every Plateau citizen to restraint self from anything that will bring problem, crises or violence in the state, saying, “because all this will bring us back again.”
The Organizing Secretary also noted that, “PDP is the only party in Nigeria that has structures that can touch every angle in this nation. Anywhere you go in Nigeria, you find “PDP,” “PDP” and others.”
It could be recalled that, the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) chairman earlier disclosed the revised notice of the local government election, following the #EndBadGovernance protests across the nation.