By Kolade Larewaju
ABEOKUTA – THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday annulled the Ogun State House of Assembly primaries to elect  candidates for 2011 election conducted earlier in the day and ordered a fresh one same day.

The State Assembly Election Panel from Abuja which arrived Abeokuta at about 2.30pm immediately ordered the cancellation when members were told that the primaries in which even Governor Olugbenga Daniel voted at his Makun, Sagamu constituency, had been conducted.

Chairman of the Panel, Chief Obinwa Nnaji, who spoke with newsmen at the State Party Secretariat at about 3.30 pm, said the primaries would have to be re-conducted with materials brought from Abuja, adding that what had been done earlier in the day was a nullity.

He said “we had flight weather problem due to harmattan. They kept putting off the flight schedule. And so we did not make it until late this morning before we took off.  The national PDP has been working round the clock almost 24 hours, Christmas, New Year they were there. Most people that have to go for this ceremony either got to hear about it either Sunday or Saturday.

They told us what they have done; an improvised thing and it does not stand the test of time. The party has been preaching sincerity, honesty, integrity. We are not saying they are not honest. What we are saying is that let us be fair. We are already here with the materials.

What ever they have done let us re-do it, let it be a clean slate. Let everybody sees it that people conducted the election using the party’s machinery on the result sheet sent by the party instead of the improvised thing. Maybe they thought we were not coming. Now that we are here, we should be able to do it the right way.”

Asked about how the delegates and aspirants would be mobilized back to the field in view of the time, Chief Nnaji said they “are already doing it, politicians work round the clock” and explained that the party should not have started the exercise without the panel. “No, no, I sent a text message to him Fadairo when we had flight problem. I told him that nothing should be done until we are here, that we were already on our way.

He told me he was charging his phone somewhere. I sent the message about 11.a.m. and I could not have asked them to go ahead. The most important thing is that we have to authenticate the result on the sheet sent by the national headquarters. So, whatever you have done cannot stand. We have an INEC man that believes in thoroughness, credibility and integrity, we don’t want people to go around and bandy the story that Ogun State had its election on a sheet of paper given by the state chairman and the secretary. It is not good.”

On the parallel executive, Chief Nnaji said he knew nothing about it adding “we are here to conduct an election. I don’t know anything about parallel, we are going to work on what we have.”

Before this development, the factions in the state PDP had held separate congresses for the aspirants at designated areas.

Two factions of the party – the Governor Olubenga Daniel faction led by the Chairman of the Party; Elder Joju Fadairo and the Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye’s faction with Bashorun Dayo Soremi as Chairman – had been at daggers drawn for sometime over the control of the party with each side claiming to be the authentic.

While the Joju Fadairo group claimed that they were duly elected at the State Congress, the Dayo Soremi group insisted on the harmonization of the State executive council of the party as directed by the National Working Committee of the party.

The Jubril Martins Kuye faction is believed to have the support of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senators Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello and Lekan Mustapha, Chief Sule Onabiyi among others group.

In the Daniel camp are members of the Party Executive, Commissioners, Special adviser and Assistants and Local Government Chairmen.

The Soremi faction had on Sunday put up paid advertisements in some newspapers specifying 25 designated places for primaries into the 26 membership House of Assembly as two constituencies in the Ado-Odo holding its primaries in the same location.

However, the Fadairo executive in its own publication on Monday listed 26 areas where the primaries would hold which were different from those that the Soremi group announced on Sunday.