Ignore suit against national convention, PDP tells faithful

• Floors APC in rescheduled Kaduna LG poll

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged its members to ignore a fresh court case instituted in Kaduna High Court against the October 30 and 31 National Convention. 

A statement signed by the Secretary to the National Convention Organising Committee (NCOC), Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, called on all members and supporters of the party to “ignore this distraction as we prepare to host a convention that will send a clear signal to Nigerians that the PDP is the only party that has the will and might to rescue Nigeria from the catastrophe that we have been enduring for the past six years.

“We are aware that a clearly united PDP is a threat to the forces that seek to divide us. Therefore, we urge our teeming supporters nationwide to keep the faith as we are taking all necessary measures to ensure that we are not distracted from our goal.”

MEANWHILE, Francis Zimbo of PDP has won the rescheduled chairmanship election in Zango Kataf Local Council of Kaduna State.

The Returning Officer (RO), Nuhu Garba, who announced the result yesterday, said Zimbo secured 28,771 votes to beat John Hassan of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 19,509.

“Francis Zimbo of the PDP, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared winner of the election and returned elected,” the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted Garba as saying.

According to the news agency, the PDP also won nine out of the 11 councillorship seats leaving the remaining two for the APC.

On September 4, elections were cancelled in some Kaduna local councils, due to security concerns. But last Wednesday, Governor Nasir el-Rufai threatened to appoint sole administrators for the local councils, if the election did not take place on Saturday, October 23.

“If elections do not take place as scheduled on this date, we will have no option than to appoint administrators to manage these local councils for the next three years,” he had said. “So it is in the interest of everybody to allow elections to take place.”