COFFIN AT PDP NATIONAL SECRETARIAT OVER DISQUALIFICATION OF CANDIDATES

Following the disqualification of some candidates who were to run for the Rivers Assembly primaries,thugs bombarded the party’s national secre­tariat in Abuja with coffins in protest. The aspirants, who came with party thugs, carrying emp­ty coffins, blocked the entrance to Wadata Plaza, headquarters of the National PDP. National Woman Leader, Kema Chikwe and National Vice Chairman, South-South of the party, Cairo Ojougboh, were turned back by the aspi­rants. Some of them, who spoke with newsmen accused the PDP National Working Com­mittee and the state chapter of the party of conniving with former Minister of State for Education and governorship aspirant, Nyesom Wike of frus­trating their aspirations.

A state Assembly aspirant, Davis Saloka, from Eleme constituency, said, “We all bought forms to participate in the PDP primary election but what we saw was out of the ordinary. We attended the screening exercise but we did not know our fate until Friday night when we saw a list pasted, in­dicating that only 32 persons were cleared to participate in the election. We discovered that those nominated from Wike’s camp were given clearance which gave them automatic ticket while the rest of us were screened out.

“The most annoying thing was that we were not told the reason we were disqualified, and it is more curious to note that all we saw was a list that was neither signed nor was on a PDP letter head, but just contained the names of Wike’s boys as the only ones cleared to participate in the party pri­mary. On Saturday, they just wrote the names of these peo­ple and said they were the win­ners of the PDP party primary where elections were not held. It is injustice, we won’t ac­cept it.” In a joint petition signed by 31 of the aggrieved aspirants under the aegis of Coalition of Rivers State PDP House of As­sembly and National Assem­bly aspirants, they demanded the dissolution of the Rivers State chapter of the party, led by Felix Obuah and the re­moval of Deputy National Chairman of the ruling party, Uche Secondus.

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About Unknown

Deji Sadiq, a.k.a DEJI OF LAGOS is a LASU trained Economist turned freelance journalist, a Blogger, an information strategist, a public affairs analyst and a committed activist with a passion for equal opportunities.