#ElectionBuzzNig’23
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Aspirants for Governorship, Senate, House of Representatives, and State House of Assembly in Ebonyi State have appealed to the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) not to cancel the primaries where they were elected.
They held the purported primaries at the party headquarters on May 28 and 29, 2022, in Abakaliki, the State Capital.
But other aspirants boycotted the exercise, owning to reasons that the National Leadership of the party in Abuja had earlier issued a directive to postpone the primaries.
Speaking on behalf of the aspirants, a former house of representatives member and a senatorial aspirant for Ebonyi central senatorial zone, Hon. Lazarus Ogbe noted that any fresh primaries in the state would cause a crisis.
Ogbe insisted that the delegates that nominated the house of assembly, house of representatives, senate, and governor were legitimately elected across the 171 wards of the state.
He stressed that the primaries were conducted in the presence of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC and security agents and were there.
He said, “candidates were nominated on May 28 and 29 to fly the party’s flag, ranging from House of Assembly, House of Representatives and governor.
“Recall that the NWC of the party scheduled the primary in Ebonyi on that date. It is on record that, because of the little crisis in the party, there was no primary election in Ebonyi State when other states nominated their representatives.
“They elected a three-person delegate in the 171 wards of the state. The delegate is expected to vote for the candidate of their choice, and this they did.
“The state chairman conducted the primary that was monitored by INEC. Security agencies, the DSS, and journalists monitored the primary, and the election was done in the open.”
He said the election was certified as the most transparent in the party’s history in the state.
“Today, we started hearing rumours that the same NWC has reversed themselves and directed the same primary election to be re-conducted in the same positions.
“There was no reason or breach of the party guidelines that another set of primary be conducted in the state.”
“It is on this note, that we want to appeal to the party to allow peace to reign in the state. I have never seen where two people are contesting for the same position in the same party.
“We want the NWC to intervene in the matter and allow those nominated for their votes to stand in Ebonyi State PDP.
“All the delegates were picked from the 171 wards of the state. INEC has the list of delegates nominated. We appeal that if there is any interest playing out, that should be played down in the party’s interest,” Ogbe appealed.
The NWC has slated this weekend for fresh primaries in Ebonyi State.
This came after the party’s leadership had written to INEC to recognise Hon. Toochukwu Okorie as the state chairman of the party.
Suzan O.
