Update On Adamawa Election: How Jonathan Saved Ribadu

President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu were instrumental to the granting of waiver to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu by the PDP in Abuja on Friday, Punch has learnt.

With this, Ribadu is cleared to take part in the party’s September 6 governorship primary in Adamawa State if he and others are eventually cleared by the screening panel on Saturday.

Also cleared to face the panel are Buba Marwa and Mr. Marcus Gundiri, who also applied for the waiver.

Jonathan and Mu’azu’s intervention was sequel to the plan by majority members of the National Working Committee of the party not to grant waiver to Ribadu, who just joined the party barely a week ago from the APC.

Investigations by Punch showed that majority of the NWC members were favourably disposed to granting the waiver to Marwa and Gundiri.

When the case was presented to the President on Wednesday and Thursday, he was said to have bought the argument that if the party’s leadership did not want waiver, there wouldn’t have been any reason to insert it in the PDP constitution.

Besides, it was also agreed at the meeting that the disqualification of Ribadu and others could send wrong signals to other people in the opposition party who might be planning to defect to PDP soon.

It was agreed that the disqualification of Ribadu would mean that the doors of the party had been closed.

Before granting the waiver, the members of the NWC met again in Abuja on Friday where they considered the report of a committee set up to examine the issue. The committee was headed by the National Organising Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha. The committee was set up because of the inability of the members of the NWC to agree on the waiver, an action that also stalled the planned screening of the 14 aspirants which was originally scheduled for Thursday.

Briefing journalists after the Friday meeting, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, said the members of the NWC cleared all aspirants who expressed interest in contesting in the primary.

He said, “After very careful and thorough consideration of all applications and the report of the Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha-led Adamawa State PDP Governorship Waiver Committee, the NWC was satisfied that all the aspirants met the requirements stipulated by the PDP constitution to participate in the process.

“Consequently, waiver has been granted to General Buba Marwa, Engr. Marcus Gundiri and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to take part in the exercise.”