Primaries: Lagos PDP, guber aspirants reject adhoc delegates’ list
Members of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Lagos State, and five of the six gubernatorial aspirants on the platform of the party have rejected the adhoc delegates’ list brought by the electoral committee to the state for conducting the House of Assembly and House of Representatives primaries.
The party executives who made this known on Sunday at a press conference held in Ikeja, said that they were shocked that the list did not reflect the elected adhoc delegates conducted by the organs of the party at Ward level.
Addressing journalists, the State Chairman of the party, Hon Philip Aivoji, said that copies of the adhoc list that emanated from the state and submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was at variance with the list brought by the primaries’ electoral committee.
Aivoji explained that contrary to the electoral guidelines of the party, the electoral committee came to the state with list of venues and already chosen electoral officers.
“This is the responsibility of the State Executive Committee (SEC) and therefore totally unacceptable.”
“Also, the Committee Chairman and the Secretary of the Election Committee meant to conduct the State House of Assembly Primary Election have not reported to the State Chairman or State Organ of the party. Up till this moment, we cannot reach out to the Committee Chairman and Secretary, their telephones have either been switched off or unreachable.
“As law abiding members of our great party, we collectively reject this list and we cannot guarantee, free, fair and credible party primaries that we have sworn to conduct. The processes have been compromised ab initio and skewed to favour a particular aspirant,” said Aivoji.
The party executives, however, called for outright cancellation of the primary elections exercise, adding that validating the elections would not only jeopardise the chances of the party at the polls but also lead to a plethora of endless litigations afterwards.
Fielding questions from the media, Aivoji alleged that some adhoc delegates were not members of the party, demanding to know who directed the electoral committee not to relate with the state executives.
He said that with the irregularities, the PDP was toying with the fortunes of Lagosians, adding that the party had been in the valley for so long and that the party needs to get it right this time.
The five governorship aspirants present at the media briefing were; Deji Doherty, Dr Ade Dosunmu, Mr Jimi Kamal, Rhodes Gbadebo and David Kolawole.
WesternPost reports that Lagos PDP House of Assembly and House of Representatives primary elections slated for Sunday did not hold as members of the electoral committee from the party’s headquarters to conduct the primaries were not available in all the venues.
