By Ishaya Ibrahim
Delegates who took part at the recently concluded party primaries are at the risk of being attacked by aspirants who were defeated by their opponents after they had paid some money to such delegates.
The development is believed to be more rampant in Imo state where TheNiche was informed by one of the delegates that certain aspirants who participated in the primaries for the House of Representatives and House of Assembly for the ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) but lost are threatening them with refund.
According to the delegate, himself a ward chairman in a popular local government in Imo State, “this is the first time this type of thing is happening.”
Though he did not disclose how much the delegates were given, he however said it was borne out of the way some of the aspirants were treated during the primaries.
For instance, he said the aspirants are complaining that after paying so much to take part in the primary, buying forms and campaigning vigorously, they were either not cleared for the exercise or asked to step down for other aspirants.
There are indications that most of the delegates who participated at the PDP convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, are also getting threat calls from those who gave them money, but lost in the process.
Some of the link persons to the aspirants, we learnt, are believed to be the ones putting pressure on the delegates to refund what they were given ahead of the convention or face their wrath.
Most of them, our findings have shown, believe their candidates lost because they were shirt-changed by the delegates who failed to vote for them.
The PDP convention was to choose its presidential flag bearer which featured 12 aspirants on the ballot on October 6.
Former vice president Atiku Abubakar won with 1,532 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Aminu Tambuwal who scored 693 votes.
Other aspirants; Bukola Saraki got 317 votes, Rabiu Kwankwaso, 158 votes, Ibrahim Dankwambo, 111 votes, Sule Lamido, 96 votes, Ahmed Makarfi, 74 votes, Tanimu Turaki, 65 votes, Attahiru Bafarawa, 48 votes, David Mark, 35 votes, Jonah Jang, 19 votes and Datti Ahmed, 5 votes.
According to another source, himself a delegate, some of the defeated aspirants insisted on refund because they knew from the voting pattern of states at the convention that no vote was recorded for them from some states, meaning that the delegates simply took their money and voted some other person.
It is believed that some delegates who collected money from multiple aspirants, decided to void such votes because they got pricked by their conscience.
That also explained the relatively large number of voided votes, 68 in an election of nearly 4,000 delegates, all of whom have the basic voting knowledge.
“We have been receiving calls to either refund the money or face attacks,” the delegate told our reporter.