Posted by By KENNY ASHAKA, Kaduna and Val Okara, Owerri on
Major casaulties emerged yesterday in the run off to today's PDP governorship primaries as the North West zonal screening committee disqulaified some prominent aspirants from contesting the primaries.
* Lamido, Salisu Buhari, others stopped from contesting guber primaries
* Uncertainty over Odimegwu, Araraume, Ezenna (Orange Drugs)
Major casaulties emerged yesterday in the run off to today's PDP governorship primaries as the North West zonal screening committee disqulaified some prominent aspirants from contesting the primaries.
From the Enugu screening center of the South East zone, there were also unconfirmed reports of the disqualification of no fewer than five of the gubernatorial aspirants from Imo State. Notable among the Imo casualties are former Nigerian Breweries CEO, Festus Odimegwu, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, Chief Tony Ezenna, Ike Ibe and Jerry Chukwueke. But the zone was yet to come out with an official statement as at Thursday evening.
There were also unconfirmed reports from Port Harcourt that the Deputy Governor, Douglas Toby, had also been stopped, leaving the battle for Rotimi Amaechi, the Speaker of the state house of Assembly and Deputy House of Rep Speaker, Austin Opara
Prominent among aspirants who got the sledge hammer of the party in the North West include former Speaker House of Representatives, Salisu Buhari (Kano), former Foreign Affairs Minister, Sule Lamido (Jigawa), former Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority, (NPA) Aminu Dabo and former Internal Affairs Minister, Major General Mohammadu Magoro.
They were barred from contesting the governorship primaries in their various states for reasons ranging from non-payment of tax to irregular tax payment, among others.
Lamido was however refered to the party's national secretariat by the Dr. Saka Balogun-led National Screening committee for the zone.
Others who got kicked out of the race are former Speaker, Kaduna House of Assembly Bashir Zubairu, Aminu Ibrahim Little, Shehu Kura, Yahaya Zarewa, Kabiru Mohammed, Faruq Abdullahi all from Kano State.
However, Speaker House of Representatives Aminu Bello Masari, former Defence Minister, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), former Sports minister, Dr Samaila Sambawa (Kebbi), former Water resources minister, Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari (Sokoto) and Kaduna Deputy Governor Ibrahim Yakowa were among the 25 aspirants who scaled the screening hurdle.
Dr. Saka said Buhari was screened out because he paid his three previous years' taxes in June this year; while Ibrahim Little was not cleared because he failed to produce evidence of payment for the nomination form as well as his voters card.
Bashir Zubairu (Kaduna) was not cleared because he was impeached as Speaker of Kaduna assembly and expelled from the house. Shehu Kura, Yahaya Zarewa, Kabiru Mohammed, Faruq Abdullahi all from Kano State were also screened out by the committee due to inadequacies which border on failure to pay their taxes as and when due.
Gen. Magoro (Kebbi) was disqualified because his taxes for 2003 and 2004 were paid in April 2005; Alhaji Nuhu Ibrahim from Zamfara State was also screened out because of Ôirregular tax payment.
Former Kano state deputy governor, Alhaji Umar Ganduje also failed to pay his taxes as at when due as he was said to have paid the last three years' taxes in October this year. The same thing happened to Bello Gwandu from Kebbi State .
Those who were qualified to contest Saturday's primaries in the zone include Ibrahim Safana, Shehu Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Col. Mohammed Khaliel, (Kebbi), Kabiru Turaki (Kebbi), Bala Buhari (Kebbi), Garba Ilah Gada (Sokoto) and Yahaya Abdulkarim (Zamfara).
Others are Ahmed Mohammed Gusau (Sokoto), Col. Bala Mohammed Mande, (Zamfara), SaÕeed Yunusa, Namadi Sambo, Isaiah Balat, Suleiman Hunkuyi, Garba Madaki Ali, Lawal samaila Abdullahi, Bello Falalu and Shuaibu Idris Mikati all of Kaduna State.
Although the situation in Imo remained unclear, when Saturday Sun contacted the state party chairman, he confirmed that indeed, several of the aspirants would not be standing today's primaries. He acknowledged that there was trouble with the screening but would not diclose the name of the aspirants affected.
But Saturday Sun gathered that rather than for any fault, Odimegwu ran into trouble for failing to appear before the screening committee when his name was first called. He was said not to have arrived the venue. But there were indications that he could still scale through, ditto for the others who were making frantic efforts to reverse the situation.