75 year-old Jeremiah Useni emerges as PDP's gubernatorial candidate in Plateau state

macfranc007 October 01, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Aanu Adegun

- A close ally of former military head of state, general Sani Abacha has emerged the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau

- 75 year-old Jeremiah Useni will face incumbent governor Simon Bako Lalong

- The former military governor polled 1018 votes to defeat 12 other candidates at the party’s primaries

Senator Jeremiah Useni, 75 years old, has emerged the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau in the 2019 general elections.

Useni will face incumbent governor Simon Bako Lalong, 20 years his junior. Lalong belongs to the All Progressives Congress, APC. He also bagged the second term ticket of his party, unopposed on Sunday. Lalong, who is from Shendam LGA was born on May 5, 1963.

Useni polled 1018 votes to defeat 12 other candidates at the party’s primaries. His closest rival Johnbull Shekarau got 340 votes.

In all, 2,097 delegates from the seventeen local government areas voted at the primaries.

Useni a serving senator representing Plateau south senatorial zone in the Senate was once the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and a former minister of transport. He was also between 1984 and 1985, the military governor of the old Bendel state, now made up of Edo and Delta state.

He was also a very close ally of former military head of state, general Sani Abacha.

He was born February 16, 1943 in Langtang and joined the army after his early education. He rose to the post of Lt. general before retiring in 1999.

Prior to the commencement of voting, Senator Victor Lar, on behalf of the aspirants promised to support whoever emerges as the winner in Plateau state.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that first term governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Abia, Rivers, Delta and Cross River states have all emerged victorious in the party primaries held on Sunday, September 30.

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Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, was the only aspirant of his party and the only candidate on the ballot paper. The primary election in Rivers was also witnessed by the party's national chairman, Uche Secondus.

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