PDP postpones 3-man delegate election in Abia as protest disrupts exercise

…Stakeholders reject Adhoc c’ttee members

The Peoples Democratic Party( PDP) has again, postponed its three-man delegate election earlier scheduled to take place on Tuesday.

The exercise was originally scheduled for last Saturday nationwide but could not hold in Abia following a court injunction.

National Organising Secretary of PDP,  Umar Bature, had told Vanguard in an interview on Saturday that a new date would be scheduled for Abia following the vacation of the court injunction.

Contrary to speculations across the state last Saturday, Bature said the National leadership of PDP had not inuagurated any adhoc committee to conduct the exercise but was going to do so as quickly as possible.

He identified the three states where the exercise would not hold due to court actions as Abia Kano, and Ebonyi.

Meanwhile, the State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Hon. Fabian Nwankwo, confirmed to our Correspondent on Tuesday, that members of the adhoc committee had arrived the state.

He also said that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the exercise did not hold in the state because of the Sallah holiday.

But there were grumblings in the party following rumours that the three man-delegate election was being secretly conducted in wards loyal to the powers that be.

Some members have cried foul, alleging plots by some forces of snuggle in already prepared lists as the outcome of the exercise.

There was a heavy protest earlier at the party secretariat Umuahia where aggrieved members demanded the sack of the State Chairman, Rt. Hon. Asiforo Okere, accusing him of running the party as “one man estate” , and keeping the members in the dark.

The protesters also accused Okere of scheming to impose already prepared list of three-man delegate on the party.

Meanwhile, some stakeholders of the party have rejected the list of the adhoc committee sent to conduct the delegate election.

One of the stakeholders who did not want his name on print, expressed fears over the composition of the committee.

Meanwhile, the State Executive Committee of the party, has dismissed the protest, petitions and calls for the sack of the State Chairman as ” spurious and laughable”.

In a statement signed by the 47 members of the Committee, the party leadership said that the signatories to the petitions were faceless, adding that their claims are “baseless and unfounded.”

The statement denied the allegation that the State Chairman had secretly sold nomination forms to his preferred candidates.

It also dismissed as false, the allegation that the State Chairman had sent somebody to the national headquarters of the party to collect materials for the delegate election.

The statement further absolved Okere of any wrongdoing in the zoning of the governorship ticket of the party to Abia Central and Abia North districts simultaneously, saying it was the collective decicion of members of the SWC.

Some of the signatories to the statement were the Deputy Chairman of the party, Chief Obinna Nwachukwu; State Secretary of PDP, David Iro; Finance Secretary, Chinyere Onuoha; Deputy Chairman, Abia North, Elder Amah Abraham, among others.