Tambuwal: PDP Moves to Beat INEC’s Deadline ...Party: With Igbo leaders' endorsement of Atiku, Buhari has lost S'east region

Indications emerged on Thursday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that it meets the December 1, 2018, deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to submit the name of the Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, as the party's candidate in the state.

 The name of Tambuwal was conspicuously missing when the electoral body displayed list of candidates for the forthcoming governorship in the state last week.

Rather than Tambuwal’s name, INEC claimed that the PDP submitted the name of Manir Muhammed Dan'iya as the governorship candidate and that of Abubakar Zaki Bashir as his deputy.

Despite the insistence of INEC that it did not reject or exclude any name that was submitted by the PDP, the main opposition party had accused INEC of manipulating the process, adding that the party submitted the name of Tambuwal.

However, a reliable source within the party told journalists that PDP would meet the December 1, 2018, deadline set by INEC to submit the name of Tambuwal.

The source added that the decision would be taken at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party next week.

According to the source, “PDP will meet the December 1, 2018, deadline set by INEC to submit Tambuwal’s name. There will be a NEC meeting next week and it will be decided there.”

Meanwhile, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, has said the endorsement of the presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, by the Igbo leaders is an indication that President Muhammadu Buhari has already lost the South-east zone come 2019.

Though the National Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Lanre Isa-Onilu had in a statement described the endorsement of Atiku by the Igbo leaders as shameful.

Isa-Onilu said: “The APC considers Atiku and his PDP co-travellers as people who have lost any sense of shame. The purported endorsement of Atiku and PDP by some leaders of the South-east for the 2019 general election is an affront on the Igbo people who were frontline victims of the 16 years of the PDP misrule.

“It will be interesting to know what the PDP will be telling the Igbo people during the campaign. The South-east people have three and a half years of visible progress in terms of massive infrastructure and the thousands of common people benefiting from the social programme investments under APC, compared to the PDP’s 16 years of retrogression.

“We in APC are confident that the Igbo won’t be fooled by any group, by whatever name, to sell a thoroughly discredited party like the PDP to the very discerning Igbo people.”

While reacting, Ologbondiyan said: “Buhari has lost the South-east with the endorsement of our team and the general acceptance of Atiku.

“The endorsement by the leaders of the South-east is a clear manifestation that Buhari has lost the region and that there are no doubts that Buhari will lose in every geopolitical zone that Atiku visits, because Nigerians have resolved and they have a common ground of resolution that Atiku is a candidate that can stop the division that APC government has introduced to our politics.”

Ologbondiyan further stressed that it is manifestly written across the federation at present that Nigerians are resolved that Buhari is incompetent and as such, he cannot bring good governance.