The confusion surrounding the main opposition People’s Democratic Party's primaries in Kano State has been laid to rest as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it only monitored the primaries conducted by the Shehu Wada Sagagi faction of the party.
The PDP had on 25 May conducted parallel governorship primaries in Kano where Muhammad Sani Abacha, a son of the late military ruler, General Sani Abacha, emerged as the winner of the Shehu Sagagi faction.
That same night, Alhaji Sadiq Wali won the primaries conducted by his father, Ambassador Aminu Wali.
INEC's Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kano, Riskuwa Arabu Shehu, told newsmen on Thursday that the commission only recognised the Sagagi faction.
"As of the time the primary election for PDP was conducted, the Sagagi-led faction was the recognised faction by law.
"It is expected that any political party that will conduct primary election shall communicate to the commission's headquarters stating the date, time, and venue of the election.
"In respect to the PDP's letter which was sent, there was no statement of venue and time.
“They only mentioned the people who will come from the PDP headquarters to supervise the election," the REC said.
Shehu however stated that the recognised chairman of the PDP in Kano, Sagagi, came with a copy of the same letter carrying the venue, time and names of the PDP supervisors from their headquarters.
He said, "we are under obligation by such information to attend, and we sent our team to monitor the election conducted by the Sagagi-led faction."
The party's team from the headquarters had also requested that INEC monitor the parallel election that same day, a task INEC turned down.
"On the same day around 3 o'clock or so, the team that came from the headquarters requested that we should go and monitor the conduct of another primary election and we said we cannot go to any other place than the one we have sent people to because our team is already there and the process has started.
"As far as INEC is concerned, we monitored the PDP primary election which was conducted by the state leadership. Of course, there was nobody from the PDP headquarters and that is their own internal issue.
"Currently, we have pasted the names of those that the party has sent, to the commission (INEC)," he clarified.
He however stressed that INEC is not compelled by law to recognise any name submitted by a party from an election it did not monitor.
