Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) delegates in Ebonyi State who were elected during the party’s state congresses on May, 7, 2022, have boycotted the repeat primaries for nomination of candidates for the 2023 general elections in the state.
Recall that the Senator Iyorchia Ayu led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party had fixed Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5 for a repeat of the state assembly and governorship primaries, respectively, conducted in the state.
The decision followed the intervention of some party stakeholders, notably Anyim Pius Anyim, former senate president, who opposed the emergence of Ifeanyichukwu Odii as governorship candidate, among others, and thus prevailed on Ayu, national chairman of the PDP and the NWC to schedule another primary election in the state, using the same delegates list.
However, the delegates stayed away from the assembly primaries held on Saturday, and have said they would not be part of the governorship primary scheduled for today since they had already elected their prefered candidates to contest the 2023 elections on the 28 and 29 of May, 2023 when the NWC of the party organized and supervised the first primary elections.
The delegates who refused to take part in the repeat exercise, warned that it would lead to crises and factionalization in the party in the state and thus hamper its chances of winning power in 2023.
Comrade Okorie C. Okorie, spokesperson for the delegates who addressed a press conference on Saturday, accused those involved in the repeat primaries as engaging in “impersonation of the authentic delegates,” stating that the exercise was a “charade and a mockery of democracy”.
Okorie said that the first primaries was conducted in a peaceful atmosphere with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) monitoring the exercise with the presence of security agencies and the press.
“The primaries were covered and beamed live Nationwide by AIT and Channels TV and was transparently conducted and we saw no reason for it’s cancellation,” Okorie added.
“If they were people who had complaints about the outcome of the primaries, they should have gone to court to challenge the outcome as provided for in the Electoral Act of 2022.”
“For the party to unilaterally annul a primary election which was properly conducted is an act of impunity and an affront on our democratic rights as elected delegates.”