By Chinelo Obogo
The Committee saddled with the responsibility of conducting the delegate congress for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra state has insisted that the election was successfully conducted and winners were declared.
In a letter titled: Re: Purported Cancellation of 3-Man Adhoc Delegate Congress Election for Anambra” and addressed to the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on May 1, 2022, the committee which comprised of Jibrin Ahmed –Chairman, Captain Frank Ntima-Member, Amara Ogbu-Member, Azubuike Odoh-Member and Ogbonna Victor-Secretary, said that despite attempted hitches, the exercise ended successfully.
The letter which was signed by each member of the committee stated that contrary to reports that the exercise was cancelled, it was conducted in a transparent manner.
The committee claimed that the three persons allegedly locked the entrance of the secretariat and compelled them to do a letter cancelling the exercise and thereafter forced the committee members to hold a press conference.
The committee members said they were later rescued by officials of the Department of State Security (DSS) after being allegedly held hostage for more than two hours and they proceeded to the collation centre chosen due to lack of electricity and security at the party secretariat and concluded the exercise.
“In furtherance of the above mandate, we arrived Anambra state on 30th April at about 3.00 pm and proceeded to the police with our introductory letter but were unable to deliver same, as the men on duty told us that the commissioner was not on seat and that we should wait till Monday . Knowing that our assignment was time bound, we proceeded to the DSS headquarters in Anambra and submitted their own copy.
“However, due to security situation in Anambra state, the Chairman in his wisdom decided that we postponed to the next day, Sunday 1st May, 2022, and communicated same to the admin secretary. We got to the party Secretariat at about 11 am in the morning and addressed the party members and stakeholders present. Thereafter, we distributed the electoral materials including the original results sheets to the designated three-man electoral panel of the 21 local government areas.
“However, Valentine Ozigbo, Ndubuisi Nwobu, Tony Nwoye and Sam Ben Nwosu stormed the secretariat and demanding the original results sheets which had already been distributed. They initially compelled the committee to sign the photocopies of the results in our possession and issued same to the people in their own list of three- man local government electoral panel. A decision they later rescinded and asked us to cancel the exercise out rightly. Hence handling over the signed photocopies to them through the administrative secretary of the party, Mr. Casmir Ajulu.
“Let it be on record that the election was free and fair and successfully concluded except for the ugly incidence which we narrated above,” the committee members said in the letter.