Malagi Consented to the Inclusion of His Name in Re-run Primary Elections’ – NNPP

MINNA: The New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has disclosed that an ex-aspirant for the Governorship of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Mohammed Idris Malagi is fully aware of his inclusion in the primary elections conducted last Thursday.

The party’s National Liaison Officer, Bashir Muhammad Abacha cleared the air in an interview on Sunday.

Recall that InsightMinna had reported that the party, after the conduct of the new primary election, declared a former aspirant under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the Flag-bearer of the party in the coming elections.

This came, despite the party having elected a Gubernatorial Flag-bearer in the person of Ibrahim Yahaya Sokodeke.

A close associate of Malagi, and a member of the Niger State House of Assembly, Ahmed Marafa Guni had come public to debunk reports that the ex-aspirant had dumped the APC.

Guni had described the conduct of a primary elections rerun held by the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) which declared Mohammed Idris Malagi as the winner as a charade.

But speaking at the NNPP Secretariat in Minna, Abacha told newsmen that the reports that Mohammed Idris Malagi was unaware of his inclusion in the primaries were untrue.

Responding to Marafa’s comments, Abacha said, “He is not aware of what is going on, he said that his principal will not join the NNPP but he is not aware of what we discussed with his principal that night.

Abacha further said that the directive for the conduct of new primaries came from the national secretariat of the party.

On the fate of the candidate earlier declared as Flag-bearer of the party for the 2023 Governorship elections, Abacha said, “Sokodeke has an issue which will be taken care of by the national secretariat of the NNPP”.