John Adams, Minna
No fewer than 61 aspirants, including three women, are to slug it out for the 27 House of Assembly tickets under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Niger State.
This follows their clearance by the party’s screening committee at its secretariat, in Minna, the state capital.
Each of the aspirant, according to findings, paid between N700,000 including N100,000 said to be for what the party called “Administrative Fee”.
It was gathered that the screening of the governorship and National Assembly aspirants could take place, in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, next week.
The reason is because the state is the headquarters of the North Central geopolitical zone of the country.
The committee that screened the potential legislatures was headed by a former Aviation Minister, Alhaji Bashir Yuguda, with Mr. Sunday Zoaka, as Secretary.
Other members of the committee were Mr. Benjamin Idoko Apogo, Alhaji Mohammed Gambo and Alhaji Ahmed Bachaka.
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Meanwhile political activities were heightened, at the weekend, in the state, as both the ruling party the APC and the opposition PDP prepared for the parties primaries for the 2019 general election.
The APC stakeholders met at their party secretariat where it was decided that the direct primary method would be adopted to pick candidates that would fly the party’s flags in all the elections slated for next year.
However, all the three senators and four of the 11 House of Representatives members in the National Assembly were absent at the stakeholders meeting.
It was not known why the federal lawmakers did not attend the meeting but for some time now, it had been said that they would defect from the party over the way and manner the executive and the party leadership were running the party in the state.
While the stakeholders’ meeting was on going, it was learnt that Sen. David Umaru was busy distributing empowerment tools and scholarships to some youths in his senatorial zone.
Also in the last couple of months, the affected federal lawmakers had not attended the APC expanded caucus committee.