Ahmed Makarfi Denies Contesting Senatorial Seat

Ahmed Makarfi Denies Contesting Senatorial Seat

A former presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi, has said that he is not contesting the Kaduna North senatorial ticket of the PDP.

The former National Chairman of the PDP insisted that the winner of the primary must be allowed to contest the 2019 polls.

It was learnt that the party ceded the Kaduna North senatorial ticket to Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi following his failure to win the Kaduna State governorship ticket of the PDP after his defection to the opposition party from the All Progressives Congress.

There was a report on Sunday that after the October 6 primary of the PDP, there were moves by some national leaders of the PDP to give the ticket to Makarfi

The crisis in the Kaduna State chapter of the party worsened on Friday when an aspirant,   Ahmad Rufai Shehu, filed an application at the Federal High Court, Abuja to restrain the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission from accepting the nomination of either Hunkuyi or Makarfi without conducting the primary.

In his affidavit, Sheu had stated that the primary for the senatorial seat was scheduled to take place on October 2, 2018, but the election committee postponed it without any justification.

The affidavit read in part, “That the primary elections in the other two senatorial districts of Kaduna State have been conducted. However,  it is only in the Kaduna North Senatorial District that the primary has not been conducted.

“I had written a letter to the Chairman, Election Petition Committee of the PDP, Kaduna State, on October 6 and submitted it on the 8th of October.

“I have not received any response from the Chairman,  Election Petition Committee of the PDP, Kaduna State with respect to the aforesaid letter.”

The plaintiff urged the court to declare that having purchased a nomination form for the senatorial primary of the PDP for the Kaduna North Senatorial District and having satisfied all the legal requirements to contest, he was entitled to participate in the primary election of the party.

He is also seeking   “an order that any act of 1st (PDP) and 2nd (INEC) defendants in fielding and sponsoring the 3rd (Hunkuyi) and 4th (Makarfi) defendants and/or any candidate without duly conducted primary for the senatorial seat is invalid and illegal to that effect.

He  is also seeking   “an injunction restraining the defendants (PDP, INEC, Hunkuyi and Makarfi) either by themselves, agents, privies, assigns, authorised representatives or howsoever described from fielding and sponsoring Hunkuyi and Makarfi and/or any other candidate for the  2019 Senatorial seat of Zone 1(Kaduna North) in Kaduna State without conducting primary election.”

But in an interview with The PUNCH, Makarfi said the crisis in the state PDP over the Kaduna North senatorial ticket had nothing to do with him.

“The national headquarters allowed Hunkuyi to participate in both the governorship and senatorial primaries and he lost in both. I am not prepared to contest any elective office, having lost the presidential primary,” he said.

Also in a statement on Sunday by his spokesman, Mukhtar Sirajo, Makarfi denied reports that he was interested in the Kaduna North senatorial seat after losing the presidential ticket to former Vice-President Abubakar Atiku.

He reiterated his belief that the political space should be broadened by allowing winners at the just concluded primaries of the party in the state to contest the 2019 polls.