Investigations have revealed that the votes of the South-East delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) mostly went to former Vice President 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 state, according to sources among the South-East contingent to the convention.
One of the delegates 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.
The delegate said: "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 a 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 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.
Meanwhile, a former National Auditor of the PDP, Ray Nnaji, has commended Atiku’s emergence as the party’s presidential candidate.
Nnaji said that the former vice-president has what it takes to defeat the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress.
Source: Punch
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Politics