BY NATIONAL PANEL REPORTERS
The processes which led to the election of Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii as the flag bearer of the Silas Onu led factional Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Ebonyi State have been strongly faulted by other gubernatorial aspirants and the party stalwarts in the state.
Odii polled 349 votes to defeat his closest rival, Chris Usulor who scored 9 votes in the gubernatorial primary election held at the party Secretariat in Abakaliki.
Odii was declared the winner of the exercise by the Chairman of the electoral committee, Lekan Olarotimi for having scored the highest votes.
But before the commencement of the party's gubernatorial primary, four governorship aspirants in the state had expressed dissatisfaction with the way the exercise was being conducted, alleging impunity which they said, characterized the whole process.
Speaking with journalists on Sunday in Abakaliki, the four governorship aspirants including member representing Abakaliki-Izzi Federal Constituency - Sylvester Ogbaga, an Oxford Trained Entrepreneur and Business Mogul - Dr Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh, former EBOSACA Secretary - Dr Augustine Nwazunku and a member representing Ebonyi-Ohaukwu Federal Constituency - Hon. Chukwuma Nwazunku fingered irregularities among other things to have married the exercise.
Ogbaga, described the primary election processes as a charade as such cannot participate in the primary election.
"I have looked at the processes that would produce the Governorship Candidate beginning from accreditation format and it is very faulty; where the secretariat is littered with a crowd of people that cannot be identified and the mode of entry has no direction as anybody that answers any name goes into the hall for the election.
"For these reasons, you don't see a process that's not transparent and you go into the election, I personally, Hon. Sylvester Ogbaga cannot start a thing that will produce shame; it is a show of shame and personalized.
"And for these reasons, I wouldn't stand for the election and will leave with my people.
"The irregularities are open and I cannot stand in an election like this because this isn't the first election I am standing," the Federal lawmaker said.
Ogbaga when asked about his next step of action said that he would consult with his supporters before knowing what to do.
Another aspirant, Dr Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh, a business mogul, inferred that the circumstance surrounding the exercise did not follow the directives of the party as according to him, unknown faces have taken over the delegate's position away from the recognized party recognized procedures.
"What has been happening in our party is an unfortunate situation, coming from a private sector where things are usually organized and things are done with due process.
"I came into the election to make a difference and I have campaigned vigorously. I did all that I ought to do from campaigns to all that was required of me, but what I see here is a charade.
"There's no delegates list, secondly, there are no result sheets and thirdly, no officials from Abuja, but what we saw and hear are people wearing tags who they introduced as secretaries and when I asked of the panel chairman, there's none.
"So, how can we identify them, they have no identity, which means that what they did was to import a few people from somewhere and design their tags and start to do the election.
"Meanwhile, the notification of election received that was duly signed by the national chairman and Secretary indicated sequences of the elections which we suppose to do House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Guber the next day, suddenly, the state chairman on his own accord without consultation from the aspirants decided to run the entire elections one day.
"You can see, everywhere is dark and we have over four thousand people here which we don't know who is a delegate and that's a clear sign that the process is designed to achieve an evil result and I will not be part of that.
"Secondly, midway into the election, a circular started flying around and we do not know and need to be verified.
"Again, during the period of accreditation, people were seen trouping into the hall with no verification and this is the murder of democracy.
"I believe that what's going on here is a charade and for me, I am going to wait for the day PDP will give us a date for primaries except for PDP national wish to kill the party in Ebonyi State.
"The result is predetermined and the chairman should be ashamed of himself," he said.
Also, Hon Chukwuma Nwazunku, hinted that his withdrawal from the race was due to abnormalities that surrounded the primary exercise.
He pointed out that the election was marred with irregularities and would no longer participate in the election.
" I am not happy at all with what is happening here and I am not going to stand on this type of election. You can bear me witness with what is happening here and that's a show of shame, where people will be conducting an election and they cannot allow even you as an aspirant to talk to your observers or delegates and you will be treated as if you are not a human being. So, for me, I believe that such exercise is not worth going into."
On his part, another gubernatorial aspirant, Dr Nwazunku Augustine, former Ebonyi State Secretary Action Control of Aids, EBOSACA, described the exercise as a busy market with no identity as no delegate list was provided.
He added: "As you look around, this place is more or less like a very busy market where you don't know who is who, since there's no display of delegates list and you don't know who-is-who, all you say is this person and you see somebody matching to where he's directed.
"I don't think that an aborted pregnancy needs to go to the delivery room again because from the beginning this election is more of charades."
Our reporters who were at the venue of the exercise observed that the exercise continued with Mr Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii who was standing alone in the exercise at the time of filing this report.
NATIONAL PANEL had earlier reported that there was a commotion in Ebonyi following the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reportedly cancelled its primaries midway into the exercise early hours of Sunday.
The cancellation was announced in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba.
In the statement, the spokesperson said the cancellation was after extensive deliberations by the National Working Committee(NWC) of the party.
He said the party will announce a new date for the primaries.
The statement reads: “After very extensive consultations, deliberations and review of all issues, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has approved the cancellation of all Party primaries in Ebonyi State”.
“To this effect, all State House of Assembly, National Assembly and Governorship primaries of our Party in Ebonyi State are hereby cancelled. The NWC will announce new dates for the affected Party exercises in the State”.
“The PDP charges all aspirants, critical stakeholders, leaders and members of our great Party in Ebonyi State to remain calm, united and focused as the PDP takes firm steps to rescue our nation from the misrule of the rudderless, corrupt and incompetent All Progressives Congress (APC).”
But the factional Chairman of the party, Silas Onu in a statement said the primaries were not cancelled.
He said the NWC did not sit and decide on the cancellation.
He accused the National Publicity Secretary and National Secretary of the party of masterminding the statement without authorisation from the NWC.
“The NWC has issued a circular for the election and only the NWC and the court can stop it and not a few individuals”
“For the NWC to sit, a meeting must be called and then deliberations will hold before a decision is taken,” he said.
Ọnụ said the primaries will go on as scheduled.
The governorship primaries however did not start till late in the evening.
It was still ongoing as of 7:35 pm.
However, four major contestants in the governorship primaries election withdrew from the race as the election got underway citing massive irregularities.
They include Sylvester Ogbaga, Chukwuma Nwazunku, Austine Nwazunku and Emmanuel Eze.
Ogbaga described the exercise as a charade while Austine Nwazunku called it shameful.
Emmanuel Eze accused the State Chairman of pandering to the whims of a particular contestant.
He alleged that the primaries were held without any delegates list and the presence of an election committee from Abuja.
Eze and Ogbaga alleged that the delegates from their respective zones were not allowed into the venue.
Nwazunku described the atmosphere at the state party secretariat, the venue of the exercise as a marketplace not fit for any serious business like a party election.
The primaries however went ahead despite the withdrawals and reported cancellation.
