Former information minister, Labaran Maku, will this week, be unveiled as the Nasarawa State governorship candidate of the All Progressives’ Grand Alliance (APGA) Daily Trust learnt, yesterday.
The party is concluding final arrangements to send Maku’s name as a substitute for Mr. Mathew Ombugaku, his Eggon kinsman who emerged the governorship candidate earlier, sources close to the minister said.
Maku and his close associates, including a former parliamentarian and a serving House of Representatives member resolved for APGA after the possibility of his candidature in the Labour Party became slim because of a suit filed by Barrister Lagi Innocent, the party’s governorship aspirant to stop the party from fielding Maku.
Hajiya Aisha Ambaka, LP’s chairperson in the state, has been sent to INEC as the party’s candidate, pending when it will resolve on a candidate for substitution. The party refused to recognise Lagi, who participated in the primary election because he was said to have failed to complete the processes of candidature.
Maku addressed youths groups of various ethnic groups in the state, at his Wakama, Nasarawa-Eggon home on Saturday, and declared that he had not dropped his aspiration to govern the state, even after he failed to get the PDP ticket which he first contested at the December 8 primary election. Maku was defeated by Yusuf Agabi, but he has continually challenged the election as a fraud.
By yesterday, sources close to the former minister said he had already resolved with some of his associates to move to APGA where he has the chances of substitution.
Maku’s campaign spokesman, Yusuf Zakari Ukpo-Edego did not pick his calls or return an sms sent to get his official comment. He had told Daily Trust a day before that he was not unaware of speculations that Maku was leaving the PDP, but declined to confirm.
