Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Again a group of stakeholders under the aegis of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Integrity Group has again raised alarm over alleged plans by the state leadership of the party to clone details of delegates for the September 3 governorship primaries.
According to the group the state leadership of the party has been allegedly compromised to breach the agreement it had with the 21 governorship aspirants on the accommodation of delegates in Yenagoa as from August 31st.
The coordinator of the group Mr Tony Nathan Ile in a statement issued in Yenagoa on Monday disclosed that Intelligence Report available to it indicated that delegates are being ordered to check into hotels already in contravention of the agreement the Moses Cleopas led state executive had with the aspirants.
Ile who noted that the earlier plan to clone details of delegates was shelved after the group protested to the national leadership stated categorically that delegates from Yenagoa local government area have already checked into a hotel in Yenagoa.
The group called on the national leadership to quickly “intervene and caution the state leadership to stop this evil machination” adding that failure to address the issue would led to mass protest at the state and Abuja.
“The idea behind the hurried accommodation of delegates at designated hotels by the state chapter barely two (2) weeks to the primary is to detain them at gun point and used the cloned cards to impersonate those of them who have being observed not to be in support of their preferred choice of aspirant. Those opposed to their orders might be detained and may not be allowed to exercise their constitutional franchise of voting at the venue, and in their stead, bring in non delegates to replace them. Members of the PDP Integrity Group has been raising the red flag relating to the partial conduct of some state party leadership especially the chairman, who has recently shown open endorsement of the governor’s choice and has gone ahead to promise total compliance by all delegates under his watch. Having noticed non compliance and loyalty by supposed delegates at the ward levels, they have now gone ahead to device a more sinister, ridiculous and primitive method of confining delegates to hotels all in a desperate bid to completely shut out all aspirants except their preferred choice from gaining access to these delegates. This ill motivated attempt must be resisted by all stakeholders and aspirants expecting a smooth democratic process devoid of any manipulation and undemocratic conduct.
