Politics
TWENTY-TWO out of the 36 members of the Anambra State Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have declared that the party would lose the November 18, 2017 gubernatorial election in the state disgracefully if its present leadership in the state would not change its ways.
Narrating events leading up to the August 28, 2017 state congress and the primary election held last August 28, for the selection of the party’s candidate in the November 18 gubernatorial election in the state, the members of the state caretaker committee described the happenings as programmed to make the PDP lose the polls.
In a strongly worded petition addressed to Ahmed Makarfi, chairman of the National Caretaker Committee, the Anambra State PDP leaders note that the state congress and the primary election were “characterised and marked by fraudulent manipulations of the electoral process and disregard for the party’s constitution and guidelines”.
Among signatories to the petition are Vitalis Okafor, a lawyer and former member of the National Assembly, and Humphrey Nsofor, an engineer and former majority leader in the state House of Assembly.
The petitioners accuse Alphonsus Nwosu, the chairman of the state Caretaker Committee, and Josephine Anenih, the secretary, both former ministers, of acting a script to produce a predetermined candidate as the primary election winner.
Oseloka Obaze, a former secretary to the Anambra State government under former Governor Peter Obi and considered a protégé of the former governor, was elected overwhelmingly as the PDP candidate in the forthcoming election, though boycotted by leading aspirants like Stella Oduah, a senator and an ex aviation minister. Obaze’s critics accused him of being Obi’s stooge.
The aggrieved party members say that the electoral process was so manipulated that of all the 36 members of the caretaker committee only Nwosu and Anenih were allowed to vote because they were the ones considered eligible state delegates.
They were not allowed to serve as even ward delegates, according to their petition.
“We were humiliated, rendered dysfunctional and excluded in all the activities and management of the affairs of the party and decision making processes leading to the congress,” they complained.
They also accused Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State of physically abusing them and forcibly removing from their necks tags identifying them as state delegates and sending security men after them in the full public glare.
The party leaders noted that both the ad hoc state congress and the primary election were rigged by Nwosu and Anenih, whom they accused of unilaterally compiling, approving and publishing the list of delegates from the 21 local government areas, LGAs, in the state.
Besides, they said none of the major stakeholders were allowed to make an input, stating that the state caretaker chairman and secretary distributed membership registers to ward caretaker committees secretly to enable the duo to hand over the registers to certain “lackeys who are agents of APGA (the All Progressives Grand Alliance and the APC (All Progressives Congress).”
Similarly, they accused Nwosu and Anenih of doctoring membership lists in Onitsha South, Anaocha, Orumba South, Ekwusigo and Orumba North LGAs, arguing that by shifting the date for the open distribution of memberships registers from August 18 to August 19 without publicity for the change or even for the exercise itself the two succeeded in undermining the party’s chances in the governorship polls.
To worsen matters, according to the petitioners, people who had already been sworn in as caretaker committee members in wards and local government areas were abruptly dropped by the chairman and secretary without explanation or apologies.
They said that all those who won in the ward congresses and were certified by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the official observers, were dropped in favour of the lists “magically manufactured” by Nwosu and Anenih for the sole purpose of making their “lackeys” participate in the primary election.
“This is totally unacceptable, unjust and it offends good conscience”, the complainants said, adding: “It is a recipe for a disgraceful outcome and failure of the PDP.”
– Sept 11, 2017 @ 17:53 GMT
Tags: Ahmed Makarfi Alphonsus Nwosu Anambra PDP Members Warn Party Will Lose November Election Disgracefully Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State OSELOKA Obaze PDP Peoples Democratic Party Vitalis Okafor
