Confusion reigns in Kaduna Central Senatorial District as El-Rufai replaces Shehu Sani in secret election

CONFUSION reigns about the fate of the All Progressives Congress' (APC) Kaduna Central Senatorial District primary elections after incumbent Senator Shehu Sani scoffed at the results of a poll organised by Governor Nasir El-Rufai in which he was deselected.

Over the last fortnight, the ongoing battle between Senator Sani and Governor El-Rufai has come to the fore, threatening to tear the APC chapter in the state apart. Senator Sani had been given an automatic ticket to stand again but Governor El-Rufai refused to accept this, saying that the legislator must be punished for his role in denying the state access to a World Bank loan.

Yesterday, fresh elections were conducted in which Mallam Uba Sani, the special adviser to the governor emerged victorious with 2,088 votes to the senator’s 15. However, the result was scoffed at by senator Sani, who had refused to participate in the elections, calling them a kangaroo charade, pointing out that the party had already adopted him as its candidate.

It is unclear what the APC high command now intends to do after Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, the chairman of the Primary Election Committee and a national official of the party, declared Mallam Sani as winner yesterday.  Former Kaduna North Local Government Council caretaker chairman, Usman Ibrahim, came second with 129 votes while Senator Sani’s predecessor in the senate, General Mohammed Saleh, scored 55 votes while Shamsudeen Giwa polled six votes.

Some security personnel barred journalists from covering the election, which held at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Hall, Murtala Square, Kaduna. A team of security personnel headed by one Fom D Moses who was said to be the divisional police officer of the Samaru Division said he had received instructions not to allow journalists entry to the venue.

When asked whether the constitution prevents journalists from covering such events, Mr Moses said: “I should be very careful or else the politicians will indict me, I fear the politicians more than the journalists. If somebody said I shouldn’t allow you in, then I shouldn’t."

Efforts to get the Kaduna State Police Command to tell the officers to let journalists into the event proved abortive too as Mr Moses refused to accept any call. Laughing at what he described as a charade, Abdulsamad Amadi, Senator Sani's spokesman, said that his principal was not participating in what he described as an illegality.

He added: “The office of Senator Shehu Sani has not and will not send anybody as their representative or agent to that illegality that some desperate people are organising. This is because the national leadership of the APC has not scheduled any senatorial primaries in Kaduna central on Saturday.

“Consequently, anybody that goes there does so at his or her own freewill and does not in any way represent the interest of Senator Shehu Sani.”