Tag: PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it is reviewing last Saturday’s governorship election in Kogi and Imo, before making a pronouncement on its next line of action.

The PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Umar Damagum, stated this at a news conference after the meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) on Tuesday in Abuja.

He urged those who participated in the election to follow legal means  in seeking redress, eventhough the PDP had reservation about the judiciary system.

“I want to use this opportunity to call on judiciary to be responsive and responsible in dispensing justice in this country, because we need this country.

“This country is bigger than all of us. It will outlive all of us”, urging that everyone should know that there is going to be a judgment day,” he said.

Damagum urged Nigerians to hold their peace and pray for the for God to intervene in the affairs of Nigeria.

He pledged that the party NWC would continue ensure that it remained indivisible and strong.

He urged PDP members to individually and collectively reflect on their actions and inactions before, during and after the election.

“I want to assure them that we continue do justice. We are ready to take all the blames because after every election there will be blames but all members should reflect on the roles they played during campaigns, during elections and after.

“We should have a self-reflection so that at the end of the day, we shall know weather we are doing the right thing because we all need this party.

“Our duty here is to make sure that this party remains indivisible, “ he said.

On the crisis within the party on who occupied the  office the national secretary, Damagum said there were conflicting  court orders on the matter.

Read Also: Your appeal lacks merit, ambitious, Abiodun, others tell Adebutu, PDP

He, however said that the PDP was working to amicably resolve it, using alternative dispute resolutions.

Damagum said that the NWC had informed both side, Sam Anyanwu who went to contest Imo governorship election, and Sunday Udeh-Okoye to withdraw all matters in court to settle the matter internally.

“Since there are conflicting court orders, we urged the two sides to stand down and we have agreed and appointed the deputy national secretary to continue to act as Secretary pending the time we will resolve all the issues; the conflicting court orders and resolutions of the south East.

“So there is no conflict and we are together and thinking together on this issue,” Damagum said.

(NAN)

The Governorship Candidate of PDP in Saturday’s election in Imo, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, has formally reacted to the outcome of the poll, saying it is unacceptable to him.

Anyanwu spoke through a statement issued by the Director of Media and Publicity of his Campaign Organisation, Mr Ikenna Onuoha, and made available to newsmen in Owerri on Tuesday.

He described INEC’s declaration of Gov. Hope Uzodimma of APC as the winner of the poll as “unacceptable”.

Anyanwu alleged that the election was hijacked by thugs and urged INEC to cancel the election.

He discredited the results announced by the electoral umpire, saying that they were obtained from areas where elections were not scheduled to take place.

The PDP governorship hopeful advised INEC to redeem its image by reviewing the exercise or cancelling the election within seven days

“Imo people should be bothered that INEC generated election results from areas it had earlier announced that election would not hold due to insecurity,” the statement added.

It threatened that the PDP governorship candidate might be compelled to seek redress in Court, should INEC fail “to either review the election or cancel it entirely within seven days.

“INEC is advised not to allow itself to be viewed as a willing tool to destabilise Nigeria’s democracy,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, Anyanwu has denied the allegation in some quarters that he collected N2.5 billion from party leaders and financiers to induce voters to vote for the party in the election.

He was reacting to the “rumour that he disbursed only ten per cent of the funds”.

According to the statement, Anyanwu described the allegation as “blackmail from mischief makers and a vile attempt to malign his character”.

Read Also: BREAKING: INEC declares PDP’s Diri winner of Bayelsa election

It stated that the party did not subscribe to thuggery, vote buying and other electoral misconducts.

“This allegation is not only misleading, ridiculous and mischievious but a big hoax.

“It is pure blackmail from mischief makers with no iota of truth in it.

“It is preposterous and utterly absurd for a sane person to allow himself to be used as a tool to malign his fellow humanbeing simply to pursue a vile and irrelevant motive.

“That the PDP refused to be part of vote buying, thuggery and rigging, which is at variance with the Electoral Act, should not give anyone the temerity to propagate falsehood in order to score cheap political relevance,” the statement added.

(NAN)

The Governorship Candidate of PDP in Imo, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, has cried foul over some alleged electoral malpractices in Saturday’s poll.

Speaking on the reports from the party agents in the field, Anyanwu alleged incidents of vote buying, ballot box snatching and other irregularities in some polling units.

He spoke in an interviiew with newsmen in his Amaimo residence in Ikeduru Local Government Area (LGA).

He accused party agents of the ruling-APC of “coercing voters to vote for the party”.

He further alleged that some PDP agents were shot by political thugs.

According to him, one of the PDP vehicles was burnt at Inyishi Community in the LGA, while the agents were trying to resist the thugs.

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He, therefore, called for the cancellation of the results of the poll in the areas allegedly rocked by thuggery and violence.

He also urged INEC “to beam its searchlight on Ikeduru LGA”.

He said: “I have an evidence that one of the thugs is a member of the House of Assembly.

“In the process of snatching the ballot boxes, the lawmaker’s Identity Card fell off and I have it here with me.

“I call on INEC to consider the available evidence and cancel results of elections in the affected areas.“

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also learnt that there were cases of vote buying and coercion of voters in Polling Units 003 and 004 located at Chief Obi Primary School, Emekuku in Owerri North LGA.

It was also learnt that some thugs invaded the Umuokoro Village
Hall, Iho, also in the LGA, where they allegedly snatched and destroyed ballot boxes and ballot papers.

An eyewitness account said that the reinforcement of security personnel in the area helped to restore normalcy in the area.

However, INEC’s Head of Voter Education, Mrs Emmanuella Opara, said the commission had yet to receive any official reports of vote buying, ballot box snatching or other irregularities as alleged.

“People go on social media to say anything but we need documented evidences or reports.

“We have not got any of these reports,” Opara said.

She further said that the commission deployed EFCC personnel to arrest any person caught indulging in vote buying.

(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Candidate in Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Nigerian Military of molesting voters in the ongoing governorship election.

Sylva spoke after casting his vote at Polling Unit 4, Dukuraku Central Open Space, Okpoama, Ward 4, Brass Local Government Area.

Sylva said the contest appeared to be between APC and the security agents, particularly the military, which he said had taken sides.

He said : “I am very confident that things will go for APC but we have some issues in units 3, 5 and 9 because the registers are not uploaded. We have escalated it to INEC and they accepted that it was a careless mistake on their part. I know why units in my ward were not uploaded.

Read Also: Bayelsa: Voting commences in Sylva’s ward after 3 hours delay

“So far, in my unit things are going well but around the state we are following there is a lot of violence. PDP is doing quite a bit there trying to molest our voters with security. In fact in some cases it is believed that we are running this election not against PDP but against security. But we are contending with the situation and in the end we will come out victorious.

“This morning I woke up with the story of one of my APC members being shot in Yenagoa. In afternoon we heard the situation the military personnel have taken over some areas, in fact in Biseni community the military are there to snatch ballot boxes.”

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George on Wednesday, November, said that certain members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) were the cause of the party’s defeat in the 2023 presidential polls.

In an interview with media in Lagos, George criticized NWC members for giving party tickets to wealthy people.

The former PDP deputy national chairman (southwest) of the party cited the Lagos case to argue that the NWC had strayed from the primary election and congress procedures that the party’s founding fathers had established.

He said that going back to these procedures would help the party’s chances in future elections.

He said: “A typical example is the primaries in Lagos either governorship; they will send people who don’t live here and who have no business here to come and conduct primaries.

Read Also: Diri, Bode George, Uzodimma renew calls for restructuring, effective federalism

“How can somebody from outside know your house more than you by the time they land? Rather than allowing people to vote, they will be looking for the aspirants and they become their Automated Teller Machine.

“Once they finish, they will run back to the national organising department to affirm the person they supported. But I won’t expand more than that, and that is the major crisis which you see because, if you go to the bottom and do your primaries at the wards and local government levels and create division at that level, how can you fight the outsiders?”

He added: “There should be no short approach; sweeping everything under the carpet is a foolish way to do it.

“We must set up a committee that will go around the country, move state by state, and make inquiries about their experiences, what happened to finances, and the political aspect. How were the primaries conducted in each state? Who did what?.”