There's something fishy going on with PDP's senatorial ticket in Senate President's district

The winner of the Peoples Democratic Partys primary election to elect a candidate to contest in the 2019 legislative election to represent Kwara Central Senatorial district has thrown up some unexpected and suspicious confusion.

The election which was initially scheduled to hold on Wednesday, October, 3, 2018, was rescheduled for Thursday, October 4 with no official reason disclosed.

According to a report by TheCable, the venue for the resceduled exercise, including for the state's other two senatorial districts, were unknown to party members and journalists.

The state chapter's spokesperson, Tunde Ashaolu, had previously disclosed that someone had picked up the nomination and expression of interest forms for the senatorial district, but failed to disclose the person's identity.

A party member told TheCable that even party delegates had no idea who the aspirants for the district's ticket were.

"You won't believe that as a delegate, I don't know those contesting for the ticket of Kwara Central. I was only told one person collected the form, who that person is I don't know, our leaders said he is anonymous," he said.

On Thursday, Ashaolu told TheCable that the state's primary elections had been concluded with winners for all of the electoral positions concluded. However, he failed to disclose the name of the party's elected candidate for Kwara Central.

He said, "We have done all our primaries but I can't give you that information you requested for. The only thing is that all our senatorial primaries have been completed but I can't give you names of the winners."

Saraki might have bought tickets for Presidency and Senate

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is the current representative of the Kwara Central Senatorial district but is not contesting re-election because he's among a long list of aspirants fighting for the PDP's presidential ticket.

Despite his presidential ambition, there has been a rumour making the rounds over the past few weeks that he's still keeping an eye on the seat in case he loses the presidential ticket to another aspirant.

The uncertainties over the winner of the ticket has now lent more credence to the rumour as a source told TheCable that the Senate President bought the forms as well as the ones to allow him run for president.

The source said, "The senate president picked the form as well as that of presidential. I can tell you that he is more interested in retaining his seat at the senate than being the head of this country.

"If he had not obtained the form, a man like David Mark would have had a higher stake than him as to the leadership of the 9th senate. So, he knows what he is doing.

"Let me tell you the PDP ticket in Kwara Central was given to a retired permanent secretary in Kwara state. His name is Abdulrahman Babatunde Sidiq. He will hand over the ticket to the senate president when he is ready."

The mystery surrounding the ticket is expected to be cleared up on or before Sunday, October 7, which is the deadline given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conclude party primaries and forward names of candidates.

Saraki will know his fate this weekend as the party conducts its presidential primary election in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, between Saturday, October 6, and Sunday, October 7.

He'll have to defeat former vice president, Atiku Abubakar; Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal; Gombe State governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo; and former governors including Sule Lamido, Ahmed Makarfi, Attahiru Bafarawa, Jonah Jang and Rabiu Kwankwaso.

Others are former Senate President, David Mark, former Senator, Baba Datti Ahmed, and former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, Tanimu Turaki.