Candidate queries Niger LP’s substitution of name

GOVERNORSHIP candidate of the Niger State chapter of the Labour Party (LP), Yahaya Dauda, has accused the leadership of the party of substituting his name with another after he had won the party’s November 4, 2014 primary election.

   Dauda, who addressed newsmen in Abuja, said his name was dropped from the list released by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), a development that is being championed by some elements in the party to scuttle his ambition of governing the state.

   “I state here unequivocally and without any fear of contradiction that I am the bona fide candidate of Labour Party in Niger State, eminently and ably qualified to contest the office of governor in any state of our federation,” he said.

   “Having satisfied all the requirements of Labour Party, I was invited to participate in the primary election conducted at the party office in Minna on December 10, 2014, in which I was unopposed and duly declared candidate, and which was captured and documented.

   “Somehow, and for some extremely obscure reasons yet to be articulated, the conveners of the primaries, principal among who is the state chairman of the party, in collusion with some internal and external forces that seek to truncate my contesting the election, fraudulently replaced my name.”

   He said he was yet to get a reply from INEC concerning the replacement of his name, having petitioned the agency since January 5, 2015, immediately he discovered the anomaly. He added: “In my case, I raised the objection on January 5 when they displayed the names on their board in Niger State.”