Last weekend ward congress held in Abia state has been described as “charade which has no remedial features,” this was asserted by the eleven governorship aspirants which includes Three senators representing Abia State in the Senate and another eight governorship aspirants of the party, as well as Senatorial aspirants who have come out to say that there was no ward congress in the state, as they vowed to go to court should any result be released.
In a statement signed by both the governorship aspirants and the senatorial aspirants said what took place in Abia was a charade which has no remedial features, the statement further stated that exercise was a “shameless caricature of democracy”.
The statement further stated that it was “a cruel stab on PDP’s legacy of internal democracy and a crude mockery of our great party’s assurance of a level playing ground. The gross aberration is unprecedented in executive impunity and it is the ultimate in anti-democracy conspiracy and fascist fraud.”
The statement which was read by Senator Uche Chukwumerije said that the Tony Ceaser Okeke national congress led team arrived at 1.20pm to the state secretariat of the Abia PDP and had a meeting with aspirants delegates and stakeholders who expressed their fears of the plan to hijack the congresses by the state government, however, he said that the meeting closed at 2.15pm but suprisingly the party registers of the 184 wards in Abia disappeared which is contrary to the guidelines for conduct of congresses.
According to Chukwumerije; “The panel gave the assurance that the congresses will follow strictly the party’s guidelines and the constitution. But unfortunately the team failed to produce the mandatory election materials for the congresses viz; collation materials; identity tags for those to go to supervise the elections; party registers and even nobody deployed to the field. In the field where people waited, nobody came with any materials. The only activity was the local government transition committee chairmen moving about with their security and video crew and still photographers taking pictures of the crowds anxiously waiting for the arrival of the electoral officers. Between 5.30pm and 6pm, the people dispersed to their homes disappointed, which means that No congresses held anywhere in Abia according to the guidelines of the party.”
Stating further they said that around 8pm they observed clandestine movements of non-executive members of the party and government officials carrying with them pre-prepared fabricated result sheets of papers to the members of the panel in Damgrete Hotel where they were clustered since their arrival after the meeting they held with the stakeholders and aspirants that ended around 2.15pm.
According to the aggrieved aspirants that they alleged that the panel spent most of the night compiling fictitious results, as they concluded that no congress election of any type took place in the whole of Abia as they added that; “We insist that an election as scheduled by the constitution of the party be held as soon as possible within the timeline of the 2015 electoral schedule of our great party. The charade that took place in Abia had absolutely no remedial features. “It is a shameless caricature of democracy, a cruel stab on PDP’s legacy of internal democracy and a crude mockery of our great party’s assurance of a level playing ground.”
Speaking on the issue, Senator Abaribe said: “We insist on an election and we are saying let the people decide. We do not know why they are afraid to come to the field and let the people decide. We have given up ourselves to the party and we are saying let the people make that decision, that they are afraid to come to the field means that they do not believe in democracy, fair play and in a fair contest and this is not good for PDP. All of us are PDP people and we are the people that will deliver President Goodluck Jonathan in Abia and we can not be excluded from this process.”
According to him if the state government comes out with any result, they would challenge it at the PDP congresses electoral panel.
