Pantami defects to PDP, clinches Gov’ship ticket

The immediate past Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and clinched the governorship ticket of the party.

He emerged through a voice affirmation during a primary election held on Tuesday in Gombe.

He was declared as the sole aspirant by Hon. Gregory Yenlong, the Chairman of the PDP Electoral Panel.

Speaking shortly after he was declared as winner, Pantami said he contested for the seat to offer service to people of the state.

He pledged that if elected in 2027, he would govern with fairness and justice.

Pantami is now up against Jamilu Gwamna, the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Gombe.

Earlier, Pantami had kicked against the process which produced Gwamna as consensus candidate of the APC.

He had opted for primaries but pulled out of the exercise on the eve of the election, alleging lack of transparency.

Days after the primaries of the APC, four gubernatorial aspirants of the PDP raised the alarm that there was an attempt to smuggle Pantami into the PDP gubernatorial race.

In a communique issued after an emergency meeting Sunday in Gombe, the aspirants; Alhaji Abdulkadir Hamma Saleh, ⁠Hon. Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki, Hon. Usman Aliyu Garry and Mrs ⁠Monica Kaltho, said the law did not permit a candidate to defect from one political party to another and subsequently contest the same election process after votes have already been cast and counted in his favour in another party’s primaries.

The aspirants said they welcomed every well-meaning individual into the PDP, but strongly object to any attempt to involve a person who already contested primaries in another party.

But on Tuesday, PDP stakeholders chose Pantami as the right man to fly the party’s flag.

المصدر: Daily Trust (NG)