Trouble for Udom, as Ekere, Ekpotu, Ntekim, Ette, Esuene and others call for cancelation of PDP primary

Former deputy governor, Nsima Ekere and 21 other PDP governorship primary in Akwa Ibom State

TWENTY-two of the 23 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirants in Akwa Ibom rejected yesterday the outcome of the primary election that produced former Secretary to State Government Udom Emmanuel as the winner of the election.

Udom was declared the winner of the primary with 1, 201 votes.

Other aspirants walked out of the newly constructed international stadium, where the election was held, in protest. They alleged massive irregularities and lack of transparency.

The aspirants were two former deputy governors, Nsima Ekere and Patrick Ekpoutu; former Nigerian Ambassador to Russia and the Belarus, Assam Assam (SAN); Senator Helen Esuene; and Prof. Richard King.

Others were Larry Esin; Benjamin Okoko; former Commissioner for Rural Development, Effiong Abia; former Attorney-General and Justice Commissioner, Ekpenyong Ntekim, and others.

The aggrieved aspirants said they had no confidence in the process leading to the primary election, alleging that there was no proper accreditation of delegates, even as they claimed that delegates in the election were “fake”.

Ekere, who spoke on behalf of the protesting aspirants, described the outcome of the election that produced Udom as a charade, saying “22 out of 23 governorship aspirants cannot be wrong”.

Calling for the cancellation of the poll, he explained that doing so was in the best interest of the party.

Ekere said: “Please take note of this. We have 23 aspirants on the platform of the PDP in Akwa Ibom State and 22 out of these 23 aspirants are all here. All 22 of us went to the PDP panel to complain to them that we haven’t seen the delegate list published by the party.

“We complained to them also that there was no basis for bringing people into the stadium, when there was no accreditation. The chairman of the panel refused to address those issues.

“Unfortunately, they refused to listen to us. The chairman of the panel admitted that accreditation was actually done and we asked him where was it done and he said it was done in the Government House.

“We also observed the admittance of the people into the venue was done not by the electoral panel as stipulated in the guideline, but actually done by the Chief Security Officer to the Governor and security agencies from Government House.”

Also, Assam said the delegates were arranged by Governor Godswill Akpabio.

His words: “We are staging a walk out from the governorship primary election because the entire exercise is not transparent. The delegates you see here are not certified delegates of the party. They are not known to us. Besides, no proper accreditation has been done before the commencement of the election.

“We learnt that the list of the delegates voting here today was drawn by Governor Akpabio himself at the Government House. And we also know that they (delegates) were transported from the Government House to this place.

“We do not believe that the exercise is free and fair and so the most honourable thing to do is to walk out from this sham called election, because whatever would come out of it does not represent the true picture and as would not be acceptable”.

On their next move, Assam said all the protesting aspirants would meet to discuss how to pass on their grievances to the appropriate quarters, adding that the entire exercise should be cancelled.

Senator Esuene, on her part, said: “Enough is enough. Akwa Ibom people have suffered a lot. We must reject this level of impunity. Akwa Ibom State belong to all of us.”

Ekpoutu advised the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to do the needful by rejecting the outcome of the primary.

Describing the election as a charade, the former governor said: “We believe in the capacity of the NWC to resolve the injustice done to all the 22 governorship aspirants. We have rejected the umbrella that accommodates few people.”

 

Culled from The Nation newspaper