GOVERNOR WADA'S SECOND TERM RETURN NOT LIKELY TO HAPPEN.

The reelection bid of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State
may have suffered a major setback following
indications that former President, Goodluck Jonathan
and some entrenched interests within the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, are against him returning to the
Government House in Lokoja.
The immediate past President and his supporters
accuse Wada of being responsible for the party’s defeat
by the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the
presidential election, according to The Nation.
It quoted a highly placed source who disclosed that the
ex-President believes that Wada supported the APC
presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari because he
is a Muslim, adding that his grouse with Wada also
bordered on the latter’s visit to former President,
Olusegun Obasanjo in his Abeokuta home in Ogun
State, at the height of the presidential campaign.
Wada lost in his ward and local government to the APC
during the last presidential election, despite the alleged
“huge war chest” made available to him by the
presidency to prosecute the March 28 election.
It was gathered that other forces against Wada’s
emergence as the PDP governorship flag bearer include
the party’s former national chairman, Dr Ahmadu Ali
and former Governor Ibrahim Idris.
The PDP National Working Committee, NWC, on
Wednesday postponed the governorship primary in
Kogi State from Thursday to Monday, September 14,
attributing the shift to logistics issues.
The newspaper gathered that the party is actually
shopping for Wada’s replacement, which is the real
reason for the last day postponement of the
governorship primary.
According to the source, “Jonathan believes that Wada
supported Buhari because he is a Muslim and that he
went to visit Obasanjo before the general election.
“These are some of the reasons why you are seeing
what we are witnessing. Ahmadu Ali is angry… They
argued that Wada deliberately lost his ward and local
government in favour of Buhari.
“Idris needs N4 billion which he used to finance
Wada’s2003 election and that Wada has not paid him
all the while, but that he needs the money now”.
Despite the perceived outcome of the state party
congress which favoured Wada, the fear that the
national secretariat might spring its own delegates list
during the primary is another source of worry for the
governor’s camp.
Hundreds of party delegates massed at the Government
House Lokoja early Thursday morning, with rumours of
plans to take their protest against the unfolding
development to Abuja.
“You see the large number of delegates, but the truth is
that they have an equally large number of delegates on
their list at the national headquarters and this they can
bring. Nobody is sure,” said another source.