Aggrieved governorship aspirants in Akwa Ibom State on the platform of People’s Democratic Party, PDP, have demanded for the cancellation of the just concluded election primaries in the state.
This is contained in a statement endorsed by the aspirants, namely Obong Ide Owodiong, Mr James Iniama, Mr David Okpon, and Hon Idoreyin Umoh, titled: “Impunity upon Impunity” and made avaiilable to newsmen on Sunday, May 29, 2022, in Uyo, the state capital.
According to the statement, the aspirants who made the demand after series of meeting and after due consultations with their supporters, reiterated that the Ad-hoc delegate congresses held in the state were marred by irregularities.
The statement read: “To say that the exercise of choosing a governorship candidate for the PDP in Akwa Ibom state was a charade is stating the obvious. The exercise was fraught with widespread irregularities, subterfuge, and intimidation.
“The impunity upon impunity was palpable and brazen. It was a mockery of civilized behaviour and opposite of what is right and decent.
Sadly, the skewed political culture in the state, governed by patron-saints would rather go for the ephemeral.
“Instead of allowing a level playing field for all aspirants to convince the electoral college to choose their preferred aspirant based on a thorough and cursory analyses of the capacity, character, and competence of individual aspirants, our know-all chieftains resorted to mundane considerations and subterfuge, and the result is the charade that came out of the Special State Congress held on May 25, 2022, for the purpose of nominating a gubernatorial candidate for the Party.
“In fact, this charade and shambolic conduct has trailed all congresses leading up to the May 25, 2022 Special State Congress in Akwa Ibom State.
“We reiterate that the complaints contained in our petitions did not in any form mean that we had withdrawn from the contest; and this informed our presence at the special state congress to enable us to observe at close range the conduct of the primaries as well as offer us the locus standi to further challenge the validity of the processes in law court, if need be.
“One of such seeming irregularities, is that the so-called adhoc delegates did not go through any proper identification and accreditation process before being allowed into the venue of the State Congress for Gubernatorial primaries.
“Secondly, the list of these adhoc delegates were not published for all aspirants to be properly informed of who to consult and engage. Only the government-sponsored aspirant had prior knowledge of who the Ad-hoc delegates were and only he was able to meet with them before the primaries.
” Finally, only the government-sponsored aspirant, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, and his wife were listed as adhoc delegates and had the opportunity to vote for themselves. Other aspirants were denied this privilege.”
The aspirants appealed to their supporters to remain calm and hopeful assuring them of arriving at a position that would be satisfactory to all.
They also appealed to the National Working Committee of PDP to cancel the Akwa Ibom gubernatorial primaries pending the hearing and determination of the reliefs contained in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/606/22.
“We ran an organized and issue-based campaign, anchored on our individual and collective visions to address the many knotty issues holding onto the jugular of our development.
“We did not only dissect the problems in our individual manifestoes and blueprints but proffered solutions; we knew the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of our problems and went further to provide the ‘how’ of handling these problems”, they stated.
