Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto state, might have replaced Manir Dan’iya, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sokoto, according to Daily Trust.
Tambuwal, who defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP, contested but lost the presidential ticket of the PDP.
The newspaper said the PDP in Sokoto migh have affirmed the candidature of Tambuwal for 2019, replacing him with Dan’iya, a former commissioner in the state.
Delegates from the 23 local government areas of the state reportedly converged on the party’s secretariat on Sunday night and endorsed Tambuwal as their governorship candidate.
A chieftain of the party was quoted as saying the former commissioner voluntarily stepped down for Tambuwal and that their late night meeting was to reaffirm Tambuwal’s candidature.
The chieftain added that they tried to beat the deadline of INEC which was 12 midnight.
During the meeting, former commissioners were involved in screening delegates and taking their inventory.
The delegates were called according to their local government areas to line up for a head count after which they were asked to vacate the scene.
However, Ibrahim Milgoma, said the delegates did not affirm Tambuwal’s candidacy.
“We gathered our delegates here only to thank them for their support and cooperation during our primaries and the national convention but not to affirm Tambuwal as our candidate for governorship election,” he was quoted to have said.
“We already have our candidate who is Manir Dan’iya. We did not change him.”
NAN quoted Milgoma as saying there was still time to substitute Dan’iya according to the law.
The chairman said the party would formally announce any change if any in future noting that substitution had processes which must be complied with based on electoral guidelines.
