Tenure extension appeal: Guber candidates resume campaigns

Following the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to appeal against a court judgment extending the tenure of five governors, governorship candidates in the affected states have resumed campaigns for April polls.

An Abuja high court had extended by at least a year the tenure of the governors of Adamawa, Bayelsa, Cross River , Kogi and Sokoto states who had won their re-run elections; but the judgment provoked outrage from many legal experts, politicians and activists who said it portends serious danger to the entire April polls. The electoral commission appeals against it.

Daily Trust gathered that, following the INEC’s decision, the leading governorship candidates in Adamawa State have already resumed their campaigns with rallies, tour of local government areas and distribution of campaign materials to their supporters.

The governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Engineer Markus Gundiri has distributed campaign vehicles to his co-ordinators and begun a tour of the 21 local government areas of the state.

Brig-Gen Buba Marwa (rtd) of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has also begun his campaign from the northern part of the state, visiting both Madagali Local Government Area and his hometown of Michika.

Supporters of Governor Murtala Nyako of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have been going round the state capital with campaign vehicles to shore up his support.

Gundiri’s campaign team told Daily Trust yesterday that they had so far visited Shelleng, Guyuk, Numan, Lamurde and Demsa local government areas of the state.

They said former governor Boni Haruna who is on the campaign tour has been telling their supporters that they should be well prepared for the April polls since the court judgment did not order a stoppage of campaign, and that it would even be quashed at the appeals court since it could not withstand a rigorous judicial scrutiny.

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