At least 22 aggrieved Akwa Ibom State governorship aspirants have threatened to defect to opposition parties, citing what they described as underhand dealings in the primaries that led to the emergence of Udom Emmanuel as governorship candidate.
Pic: Akwa Ibom 22 aggrieved aspirants in a press conference.
The aspirants, who stormed the Abuja national secretariat of the PDP Tuesday night, accused the state Governor, Godswill Akpabio, of manipulating the process and shutting them out of the race.
After waiting in vain for several hours to table their complaints before the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, the aspirants distributed copies of their petition to journalists.
In the petition jointly signed by the aspirants and read by one of them, Amb. Assam Assam, they alleged among others, that the venue and authentic list of delegates used in the said primary election were changed at the last minutes.
The petition, which was addressed to the chairman of the state’s governorship electoral panel, Prince Bola Oyebowale, stated that ward congresses, through which the delegates ought to have been elected did not hold in any part of the state.
The petition said: “Despite the plethora of lists, there is no accreditation of delegates by your electoral panel to certify the individuals who are being trafficked in heavily guarded buses to venue of the congress from Government House, Uyo.
“It should also be noted that all the purported delegates from the entire state were invited to Government a House where they were addressed, threatened, intimidated and induced with the sum of one million Naira each to ensure compliance, by voting for the governor’s preferred candidate, Mr. Udom Gabriel Emmanuel.
“The authenticity of the delegates list being the condition precedent to a validly conducted governorship primaries, we shall therefore not consent to the legitimisation of the charade that this exercise is.
“It is curious and unconscionable that in a clear violation of the guidelines of the party for primary elections and the Electoral Act, the contrived list of ad hoc delegate is populated by political appointees of government and civil servants.”
[+] The Nation