By Francis Igata

Enugu—THE crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party in Enugu State, deepened yesterday, as Senator Ayogu Eze, insisted he was the only governorship candidate of the party validly elected during Monday’s primaries in Enugu State.

Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was on Monday announced as winner of PDP governorship at a parallel primaries in the state.

Eze dismissed claims that two parallel primaries were held, saying ‘’there was only one primary election at which the genuine delegates, elected on November 1, 2014 voted for me out of their freewill’’

Ayogu Eze

In a statement he said ‘’my attention has been drawn to insinuations that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, held two governorship primaries in Enugu State. This is not true. ‘What happened was that during the pre-primary briefing by the Governorship Primary Electoral Panel, bewildered aspirants were told that the list of delegates given to the panel from Abuja was different from the names of delegates elected at the November 1, 2014 congresses in the state. The electoral panel was also shown a certified true copy of the list of delegates obtained from a Federal High Court in Abuja, which it confirmed was different from the list given to them.

‘’I also reported to the panel that these genuine delegates were being denied accreditation and entrance into the venue of the primary election. I was heading to the venue of the primary election when these frustrated delegates called me to address them at Filbon Hotel, New Haven, Enugu, where they had already assembled to ponder their next move. Once I arrived the venue they insisted they must conduct the primaries. They went ahead to elect me the PDP candidate.

According to him, ‘’The electoral panel commenced their work at the so called primary election venue very late in the evening because the government had difficulty assembling people to come to the venue. They filled the stadium, venue of the supposed primary election, with non party members. It was an assemblage of passersby, touts, cheerleaders and office messengers who were hurriedly rail-roaded to the venue as a face saving measure.

‘’I want to state that I have the highest regards for the governorship electoral panel, headed by High Highness, King Asara Asara. Their hands were tied by the manipulations that produced the illegal list at the party headquarters in Abuja and they clearly told all the aspirants so.

”The electoral panel addressed seven governorship aspirants at the pre-primary briefing but only two of the seven made it to the stadium with the panel because of the panel’s confession that the list of delegates given to them was different from the list obtained at congresses of November 1, 2014 in the 260 wards of Enugu State.

‘’There could not therefore have been another primary election in Enugu State. A gathering of jesters and non party men could not have been described as a properly constituted forum of the party to elect a governorship candidate for our great party.”