Ihuoma Chiedozie

Investigations by our correspondents revealed that the votes of the South – East delegates mostly went to Atiku Abubakar.

It was learnt that nearly all delegates from Ebonyi State voted for the former vice-president.

Abubakar and Tambuwal shared the votes of Enugu State delegates , it was gathered.
However , Atiku beat Tambuwal in the allocation of the votes of delegates from Imo , Abia and Anambra states, according to sources among the South – East contingent to the convention.

One of the delegates who did not wish to be named, disclosed that Tambuwal’s closeness to some governors in the zone was what prevented Atiku from recording a clean sweep of the votes of the South – East delegates.

“Most of us from the South -East voted for Atiku Abubakar . I know for a fact that Ebonyi delegates voted massively for him.

“Atiku got the backing of majority of the delegates from the other states in the zone , although Tambuwal was able to record a considerable number of votes.

“ One of the governors (in the South – East ) has a close relationship with Tambuwal and that had a major influence on the way delegates from his state voted , otherwise Abubakar would have recorded something approaching a clean sweep of the votes from the zone , ” the delegate said.

The source added that the alleged cash inducement of the delegates by the aspirants before the commencement of voting had no effect on the outcome of the convention.

In the same vein , a former National Auditor of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ray Nnaji, has hailed Atiku’ s emergence as the party’ s presidential candidate .

Nnaji , who participated in the convention as a delegate from Enugu State, told one of our correspondents that the former vice- president has what it takes to defeat the incumbent , President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress.

Speaking shortly after the announcement of the results of the exercise , Nnaji said , “ With Atiku’ s emergence as PDP presidential candidate, Buhari will face a stiff battle in the 2019 presidential election.”

Source:- Punchng