Governorship primaries of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in  Enugu,  Abia, Borno, Taraba and Ogun states were on Wednesday characterised by violence,  protests and  withdrawal of aspirants.

Prominent governorship aspirants including a former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu; former Senator representing Enugu East Senatorial District, Gilbert Nnaji; the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and the Abia State Deputy Governor, Chief Ude Oko-Chukwu, withdrew from the race.

As aspirants stepped down from the race, there was shock on Wednesday when a presidential hopeful, Mr Peter Obi, dumped the party and his presidential ambition.

Wednesday’s PDP  governorship primaries were held  in 28 states, where next year’s governorship election will take place.

In Niger State, a protest over the authenticity of the delegates’ list forced the PDP to postpone its governorship primary.

The four out of the five aspirants threatened to stage a walk-out if their demand of ensuring proper identification of all the proposed 800 delegates was not met.

One of the  the aggrieved aspirants, Isah Jankara, in an interview with our sources,  said the exercise could only go ahead if  all the delegates  properly identified themselves with  driving licence, national identity card or passports.

The  Chairman of the Election Committee, Mr Ewhrudjakpo, who met the aggrieved aspirants  was unable to resolve the problem.

Ewhrudjakpo was left with no option but to direct all delegates to get a means of identifying themselves and shifted the exercise to Thursday.

 The four protesting aspirants are Sani Kutigi, Alhaji Sidi Abdul; a former Minister of Sports, Abdulrahman Gimba; and Abubakar Isah.