Deputy Agriculture Minister Faces Tough Contest In Mion

Dr Du-Awia Mohammed Zakaria, a 41-year-old, Director of the School of Social Work, has filed his nomination forms to contest the Mion Constituency aiming to unseat the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP). In all seven persons including the incumbent MP; Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan had picked nomination forms to contest the parliamentary seat, which has been a safe seat for the National Democratic Congress for a long time. The rest are Mr Mohammed Abdul-Aziz, Mr Alhassan Adam, Mr Abdul Jalil Bawa, Mr Munkaila King Zakaria and Mr Prince Ibrahim Tanko who have all expressed optimism in winning the primary and the main elections in December 2016 to represent the constituents in parliament. Dr Zakaria told the media at Sang after filing his nomination that the incumbent MP had played his part in the development of the constituency and that the time had come for the constituents to get a new face for more development and that he represents that image. He claimed that the constituents had lost faith in the incumbent MP who is currently Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture saying: �This is manifested in the number of people who had picked forms to contest him. I believe if he was performing many people would not even dare to challenge him.� He said he had done a lot for the constituents though he was not representing them in parliament adding: �I used my personal resources to register almost 20,000 inhabitants with the National Health Insurance Scheme and I have facilitated in bringing experienced medical doctors from the United States to examine the health conditions of the people.� Dr Zakaria said he had also made available a large number of mosquito nets, which were distributed to the inhabitants for malaria prevention and had also facilitated for the District to be captured in the LEAP 1,000 programme to benefit the frail and needy people. Dr Zakaria said he had also spearheaded education on Ebola and cholera in the constituency to ensure that the people did not contract those diseases. He gave the assurance that he would continue to offer assistance to the people and appealed for support to win the primary.