Akwa Ibom: 22 governorship aspirants deny meeting Buhari

Muhammadu Buhari, APC presidential candidate

The 22 aggrieved Akwa Ibom State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirants have denied holding a meeting with the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, or any of his representatives.
They said the report on the purported meeting was contrived to discredit them as loyal party men by the people who denied them and Akwa Ibom a free and fair primary.

The agitated aspirants, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, the nation’s capital, said their only request to the PDP leadership was for the party to redeem its credibility by nullifying the outcome of the December 8 primary.

They described the primary as “fraudulent, not transparent and a violation of the party’s rule on accreditation of delegates”.

The aspirants vowed not to be blackmailed or intimidated into jettisoning their legitimate quest for fair play, equity and justice in a democratic setting that ought to be rooted in their fundamental human rights to fair hearing.

They stressed “that while having meetings with any individual or interest group is within our legitimate rights, and something that would not be thrown away in a hurry, we, as faithful members of the PDP, remain hopeful that the party will show leadership and responsibility at ensuring that the grievances of its members are always expeditiously addressed and a policy of inclusiveness pursued in the overall interest of the party, essentially in an election period like this”.