A governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe State, Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki, has rejected the outcome of the party’s rerun primary, insisting that former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, was not eligible to participate in the exercise.
NEWSNGR reports that Pantami was declared winner of the rerun governorship primary conducted on Tuesday by the Johnbull Shekarau-led electoral committee.
The former Minister polled 2,054 votes, while Mailantarki secured 389 voted and Usman Aliyu Garry received 112 votes.
Speaking with journalists after the declaration of the results, Mailantarki argued that a recent Supreme Court judgement on provisions of the Electoral Act affected Pantami’s eligibility to participate in the primary.
Mailantarki claimed that, having finished second, he should be recognised as the party’s gubernatorial candidate.
“Therefore, having came second in the election, and going by the supreme court judgement which declared Pantami not eligible to contest the election, I believe that I am the winner of this primary election conducted today by our party,” he said.
He said Pantami was still in the APC when they were cleared by the PDP screening committee to contest in the primary election earlier slated for May 26.
According to him, the election should have only been contested by him and the third runner-up, Usman Aliyu Garry.
Mailantarki declared, “I am ready to go to court, even it if means going to the supreme court to reclaim my victory at the just concluded primary election.”
Recall that the rerun primary followed a 24 September Federal High Court judgment in Gombe, delivered by Justice Amina Aliyu Mohammed, which voided the earlier process that had produced Pantami and ordered a fresh primary. Mailantarki and Garry had challenged that first exercise.
