Twelve of the 16 governorship aspirants in Plateau State who contested in the governorship primary election of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Monday have denounced the process of the election and called for its cancellation.
The election which took place at the Rwang Pam Stadium in Jos Monday night produced Senator Gyang Pwajok as winner of the Plateau State governorship ticket, but the 12 aggrieved governorship aspirants, addressing a joint press briefing in Jos on Wednesday said the primary election was a charade which they could not accept.
“We can now announce that the last streak of light that has uncovered the mask over the Jang Agenda is the thoroughly discredited Plateau State PDP gubernatorial primary election held on the 8th of December 2014,” the group of 12 said at the press briefing, adding, “That charade was unfortunately marked by glaring irregularities and outright violations of the laid down provisions of the PDP gubernatorial primary election guidelines.”
Gyang Pwajok, who had been known to be backed by Governor Jang for the primary, polled 465 votes to beat Ambassador Ignatius Longjan who received 163 votes. Senaor Victor Lar got 109 votes to come third in the contest while Kemi Nicholas Nshe polled 31 votes, with Dr Haruna Dabin following with 16 votes. The other aspirants got less than 10 votes each.
Sir Fidelis Tapgun who read out the text of the press briefing for the group of 12, enumerated five alleged infractions of the primary election, including “discrepancy and inability to ascertain and announce the total number of delegates” that voted in the allegation.
