From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Stakeholders in the Imo People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have called on the national leadership of the party to arrest officials who were responsible for the missing result sheets which had resulted in the cancellation of the Imo PDP 3-man ad hoc delegates and list of the national delegates respectively by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
This is just as 900 stakeholders of the Imo PDP who were supposed to participate in both the state and national primaries of the party to elect flag bearers of the party were barred as a result of the cancellation of the ad hoc delegates congress.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the exercise null and void over malpractices and substantial violation of extant laws.
In a letter dated May 17, 2022, the Secretary (Ag) to the Commission, Mr Aminu Idris stated: “the Commission’s Monitoring Report on the One-Man Ad Hoc National Delegates Congress in Imo State has also indicated substantial non-compliance as no original LGA Congress Result form was provided at any of the LGA Congress venues.
The letter concludes that “the Commission expects that your party’s primaries in Imo State shall be conducted using only Statutory Delegates as provided in the Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”
Reacting to the development, Opposition Coalition Spokesperson and House of Representatives hopeful for Ideato North and South Federal Constituency, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere blamed the desperation of the National Secretary of the Party, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu as the cause of the cancellation of the party’s 3-man ad hoc delegate and national delegate lists.
He maintained that Anyanwu’s desperate resolve to hijack the ad hoc and national delegates lists using the instrumentality of his position as National Secretary of the party is the sole reason Imo National Delegates list and over 900 ad hoc delegates were invalidated by INEC.
Mr Ugochinyere also called on the National leadership of the Party to order the immediate arrest and investigation of the Electoral Officers from the Party responsible for the missing results sheets for the conduct of wards 3-man delegates’ congress and Local Government 1-man National Delegates Congress.
Continuing he said the decision by INEC was a painful one for the Party but in line with the extant laws appears the only option for the PDP in view of the desperate circumstances.
He further commended the INEC as the Party without the letter from INEC, may have gone ahead to conduct invalid primaries election which would have landed the party in a catastrophic end in Imo State.