From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
The crisis rocking the Imo State chapter of the PDP deepened, yesterday, as irate youths from across the state barricaded the entrance gate of the party secretariat along Okigwe road over failure to conduct a fresh election to produce the three-man Ad-hoc delegates.
The youths displayed placards with inscriptions such as “No harmonised Ad-hoc list no primary election”, “National office should not be a disadvantage to Imo PDP”, “Power belongs to the people” and many others.
House of Representative aspirant for Ideato federal constituency, Ikenga Ugochinyere, had earlier obtained an order from Federal High Court Abuja restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and PDP from recognising any delegate list not authenticated by the party and INEC, following the mysterious disappearance of result sheets for the Ideato North /South councils which had led to cancellation of the conduct of the three-man Ad-hoc delegates election last two weeks.
However, addressing journalists during the protest, a youth leader, Emeka Nwokeke, said Imo PDP was at the verge of collapsing.
“We are no longer happy with what is happening in the party, nobody is more PDP than any other and if anything happens to PDP, youths will be the worst hit,” he said
Youth leader the state, Greg Nwadike, commended the youths for conducting themselves in a peaceful manner while laying their complaints and grievances.
“Many youths in PDP have spent millions of naira in their aspirations to represent their different constituencies, you cannot come from nowhere to destabilise the party and youths in PDP. Anybody coming from Abuja to conduct delegate or primary election in Imo State must align himself with the guidelines of the party.”