Labaran Magaji, an aspirant on the platform of APC at the recently concluded Nasarawa West senatorial district primary election, has vowed to challenge the outcome of the election through legal and due processes to reclaim his mandate.

Mr Magaji disclosed this on Sunday at a reception organised for him in Toto local government area of Nasarawa.

Mr Magaji lost the party’s ticket to Shehu Tukur, who polled 179 votes as against his 114 votes in the election held on June 4.

According to him, the process of seeking redress has already commenced through a petition to the APC primary election appeals committee for Nasarawa West senatorial district.

The district comprises Karu, Keffi, Kokona, Nasarawa and Toto.

He said the decision was taken following allegations that some discrepancies occurred to favour the winner and called on his supporters to be patient and law-abiding as he was doing everything possible to reclaim the ticket.

“Ideally he was the candidate of the party and we congratulated him for emerging winner of that very particular exercise but soon after the election, facts emerged that touched on the credibility of the process which my team and I reviewed and discovered there was a very fundamental controversy surrounding the process,” explained Mr Magaji.

He added, “One, the delegates from Keffi and Nasarawa local government areas were not the delegates that voted during the congresses for the purposes of the election. We also came in contact with an intercept of communication which has raised a lot of issues with respect to the facts which have emerged and has brought down the integrity of the entire process which necessitated our action.”

Mr Magaji added that after filing the petition, the party’s appeal panel looked into it and found merit in the petition, thereby recommending further investigation, among other recommendations.

He said in spite of the conclusion of the party processes, he had a case on the matter at the court and vowed to continue to fight for the interests of his people whenever the need arose.

The Nasarawa West senatorial district primary election was marred by controversy bordering on alleged alterations in the party’s original delegates list for the exercise.

The controversy forced a frontrunner, Ahmed Wadada, to withdraw from the contest and also defected to another party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

(NAN)