…8 aspirants reject 3-man ad-hoc delegates for primary
…Abaribe warns PDP over self-destruction
…group alleges intimidation of Councilors to vote Ikpeazu’s anointed
The crisis rocking the Abia State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) took a new dimension on Wednesday when eight governorship aspirants stormed the party’s secretariat in Abuja to put a complaint about a suspicious move to force an anointed candidate on them. The aspirants led by Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe and Abia Deputy Governor Use Oko Chukwu stormed the party’s secretariat in Abuja warning against the acceptance of the three-man ad-hoc delegates list for the primary election. News Echo reports that the governorship primary is scheduled to take place on the 25th of May 2022, but the eight governorship aspirants have warned the party against self-destruction if it uses three-man ad-hoc delegates to conduct the governorship primary which many are alleging was crafted to favour Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s anointed candidate. Abaribe while addressing party heads in Abuja insisted that the May 6th congress that produced the three-man ad-hoc delegates was void because the party did not involve the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said that the information about the congress came from the party-state chairman, Hon. Asiforo Okere and that no state chairman will assume the powers of the National Chairman and Secretary in communicating with INEC. He said that they have come to complain to the National because they do not want all PDP aspirants including State Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate and Governorship to all lose ab initio (from the beginning).
Abaribe said that if the party goes ahead to use that delegate list it means the primaries they will organise is void and other parties are waiting to bounce on such political miscalculation. After addressing the party national leadership, the aspirants at a press conference in Abuja accused Abia State Chairman of the PDP, Asiforo Okere, of subverting the democratic process and planning to impose candidates on the party. Abaribe who read the text of the press conference, said: “The party chairman overreached himself and by so doing flagrantly ran afoul of the extant laws, both that of the PDP and the Electoral Act.” He alleged that there was no ward congress for the election of three-man ad-hoc delegates to elect a PDP governorship candidate in Abia State.
According to him, the congress which was earlier scheduled to hold on April 30 was cancelled due to a court order. Abaribe advised the party leadership to disregard any of such lists since INEC has said: “it neither received any communication from the PDP national chairman and the national secretary to participate nor did it monitor any such exercise as required by both the INEC guidelines for political parties section 1.2, which stipulates a mandatory seven-day notice to INEC and Section 82(5) of the Electoral Act 2022.” Other aspirants, including the Deputy Governor Ude Oko Chukwu, said the congress held on May 6 that produced the list of three-man ad-hoc delegates in the custody of the National Working Committee (NWC) did not meet the Electoral Act requirement.
Meanwhile, Abia State Democratic Force (ADF) has warned against intimidating PDP delegates especially the elected councilors in voting for the governor’s anointed gubernatorial aspirant. Chijioke Nwaubani, leader of the group revealed that they have credible information that Abia State Government agents who are frustrated by the decision of INEC in connection with rejected PDP three-man ad-hoc delegate list are now intimidating Councilors and mandating them to vote for the governors anointed aspirant. In a release made available to newsmen, the group revealed that Local Government Area Chairman in Abia State have been mandated to open WhatsApp groups for their LGAs where Councilors will be added. ADF also revealed that Councilors were equally instructed to snap the voting material after voting and send it into the WhatsApp group to prove that they complied with the instruction of state agents.
The group condemned the alleged action and wondered why Abia State Government is desperate in forcing an aspirant on the PDP in Abia State, to the extent of intimidating, harassing and threatening delegates, including elected Councilors and other statutory delegates! The group called on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP to be careful about Abia State because as things are going now, the party is likely to lose the state to the opposition. ADF revealed that the said anointed aspirant of the governor is not popular on the ground and his antecedent does not equally help the matter, warning that if the NWC supports the State Government by forcing the anointed candidate on the PDP, then the party will lose the state to either APGA or APC. “These people intimidating you now, deceived you, abandoned you for months. Sometime last year they promised to give you projects to execute in your wards under the aegis of one-ward-one-project, you suffered and articulated the project only for them to, in their usual way behaved like it was never discussed. “Now again, because they need your vote, they have come to make the same promise to you without recourse to the same promise they made before. That alone summarizes how they regard councillors.
“Councilors must remember that the way Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is elected, you are also elected, so don’t allow anyone to intimidate you, vote your conscience, you don’t owe anyone an apology. After voting, don’t snap your voting material, if they give you money collect it and vote the right man for the job.” “They are not in charge, if they are in charge, why was Acho Nwakanma changed as Governorship Screening Committee Chairman. If they have Abuja connection and backing, why was his so much talked about failed 3-man Delegate list thrown out?”
“Let no one deceive you, just as they abandoned the state, LGA and Ward PDP Excos, so did they abandon the National Working Committee, they are now throwing money around thinking human beings are for sale.” “State agents at every forum are threatening councilors, delegates and stakeholders of how they will deal with them if their various local governments fail to deliver for the anointed candidate. They are intimidating them by saying that ballot boxes will be separated according to LGAs and that through that process they will discover the LGAs that will fail to deliver.” ADF called on Abia people to be prepared to recover their state from desperate politicians, and corrupt politicians who have milked the state resources and want to continue milking it in 2023.
