By Raphael Ekpang
Reacting to Saturday defeat in Imo and Kogi state governorship elections, the main opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed fears that elections may not hold next time if the electoral officers continue to compromise the process. Describing last Saturday’s off-season elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa States as the worse election in the history of the country.
The party also restrained its National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu from resuming office after his unsuccessful attempt to become the next governor of Imo State on the 11th of November.
The party took the position at the end of its National Working Committee meeting which place at the party’s National Headquarters, Abuja on Tuesday and was attended by all the national executives of the party except Sen. Anyanwu.
Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting, Acting National Chairman of the party, Amb. Umar Damagum said the leadership of the party has directed the Deputy National Secretary of the party, Sakonji Koshedo to continue to discharge the duties of the secretary following orders from Enugu High Court.
He went further to state that all interested parties have been directed to withdraw their grievances from various courts and allow the party to settle all contending issues including the resolution of the South East that appointed former National Youth Leader of the party, Hon. SKE Ude-Okoye to take over the position of Anyanwu who was the governorship candidate of the party for Imo State.
“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.
He further said that PDP governors are also meeting on the matter to ensure that all parties are given fair hearing.
The PDP boss also described last Saturdays off-season election in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states as the worst in the history of the country. He lamented that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies surrendered their responsibilities to whims and caprices of the government in power in their various states.
He said that the party has always expressed reservation over the election conducted by the current leadership of INEC but lamented that the fears has been confirmed by what the electoral body did last Saturday.
He said, “We want to state in clear terms that the election held on Saturdays has further confirmed the fears that has been laid on the umpire. We have seen all sorts of violence, intimidation and high handedness. This has further confirmed that the electoral body has completely derailed from the road it was supposed to take. People have lost confidence; voters were completely disenfranchised due to the complicity of some of the agencies that were to help to have a very fair election but they completely compromised. This election is worst than even the one we had earlier.
“I want to use this medium to tell Nigerians that this is not what we bargained for and also express our fear that if we go on in this kind of manner, I am afraid that come other elections that will be off season which is coming up very soon, may be there will be no election in this country. It will be a written result.
“I ask all Nigerians to pray for this country because I don’t know if this is a cause that has happened to us in this country or if this is our way. We should pray that if this is what we are, then God should intervene.
“However, those that have been cheated in this election should pursue their grievance through the lawful means even though we have doubts that even the lawful means is also a sad story. In a country where justice is not dispensed, then anarchy is imminent”.
On the state of the party, the Acting Chairman continued, “As you can see, we’ve been doing everything possible to make sure that this party remain indivisible and we will continue to do that. I want to urge our members to be very cautious especially in the way and manner they state things. They should always state facts because it is only the facts that lasts. I want to assure them that we will continue to do justice to all.
“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”.
