Musa Nashuni: Katsina PDP governorship candidate

Mining engineer Musa Nashuni was the sole candidate for the Katsina PDP governorship primary today.

The Chairman of the Electoral Committee, Alhaji Abubakar Mua’zu, said Nashuni scored 1,309 votes to clinch the PDP ticket in the state.

Eight rival aspirants walked out of the venue of the primary election some minutes after the exercise commenced.

The aspirants are: Sen. Ibrahim Ida; Alhaji Nura Khalil; Alhaji Tukur Jikamshi; Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Tata and Alhaji Ahmed Yar’adua.

The rest are: Alhaji Kabir Bakiya; Alhaji Gide Yar’adua and Alhaji Narisu Dutsin-ma.

But Mua’zu recorded votes for them with Sen. Ibrahim Ida scoring 16 votes; Alhaji Tukur Jikamshi, seven votes; while Alhaji Kabir Barkiya and Abdullahi Umar Tata, got two votes each.

The aspirants left Nashuni in the contest, who they alleged Gov. Ibrahim Shema imposed as PDP candidate against the wish of party members.

Nashuni has been a member of the Shema cabinet since 2011, first as a special adviser and later as commissioner for works and resource development. He graduated with a first class from Camborne School of Mines, part of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. He equally holds a Masters Degree from Queens University Kingston, Ontario, in Mining Engineering.

One of the aggrieved aspirants, Alhaji Abdullahi Tata, told newsmen that they were not satisfied with the way and manner the primary election was being conducted.

He said that the name of each local government was written on one box instead of making it on the boxes uniformly.

According to him, each ballot paper was numbered in correspondence to the names of delegate on the list so that any delegate who elected any person other than Nashuni would easily be identified and punished.

Tata also said that the aggrieved aspirants had also asked their agents to withdraw from the venue“since there is no transparency in the conduct of the election”.

Earlier, the Chairman of the election committee, Alhaji Abubakar Mu’azu, said that 1,372 delegates were screened for the poll.

He said that the party had made all necessary arrangements to ensure a hitch-free governorship primary in the state.