The National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prof. Wale Oladipo has said that the Acting Governor of Adamawa State and the party’s candidate in the October 11 bye-election, Ahmadu Fintiri, voluntarily opted out of the 2015 governorship poll.
He spoke on Tuesday at the party’s national secretariat while playing host to a delegation from a group under the platform of the “National Students’ Wing” of the PDP, led by Mr. Success Wada.
Oladipo debunked insinuations that Fintiri was arm-twisted into forfeiting his chances of contesting the 2015 poll, saying “Fintiri himself opted not to contest in 2015 if he wins the October 11 bye-election.”
He continued: “We didn’t force any candidate to step down. I was the Secretary of the Committee that met with them and what happened was that we pointed it out that it will be morally wrong for whoever wins now to contest the 2015 election.
“The implication is that such a person will only rule the state till the expiration of the original term of Murtala Nyako in 2015. And eight of them voluntarily withdrew, saying that they would prefer to wait and contest the 2015 election. Nobody was forced. We don’t have a class captain in the PDP.”
Oladipo said the agreement, though not in writing, was “robust, solid and voluntary,” stressing that the party is “one big family.”
The party scribe added that safeguards have been put in place to ensure that none of the six aspirants that contested the party’s primary election contests the 2015 election. He did not elaborate on the safeguards.
