By Silas Omenka

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, primary election in Enugu State has come and gone but its ripples stay with us.

On December 8, 2014, about midday, something dramatic happened. As the King Asara A. Asara governorship primary election panel chose to brief the seven governorship aspirants about the task before them, some startling revelations came up.

During the briefing, some interesting submission was made by one of the aspirants, Sen. Ayogu Eze, over the list of delegates for the election, whereupon the panel chairman admitted, in the full glare of the press, that the list of delegates given to him was totally at variance with the certified true copy of a court judgement containing the list of delegates elected on November 1, 2014.

Eze had alerted the panel that these authentic delegates were not allowed into the venue chosen for the primary.

Those denied access to this venue, which had earlier been taken over by illegal delegates made up of all sorts of people hurriedly put together, were 306 delegates from Enugu North, another 231 delegates from Enugu East and 120 other delegates from Udi and Ezeagu local governments from Enugu West.

The authentic ad hoc delegates denied access into the venue totalled 657. There were also some statutory delegates who weren’t in that venue, plus some ad hoc delegates who were against the attempt by the authorities in Enugu and Abuja to manipulate the primary.

These people were the authentic delegates who converged on Filbon Hotel, New Haven, Enugu to elect Eze the authentic flagbearer of PDP for the 2015 governorship election in Enugu State.

There are, on the whole, 1,008 delegates in Enugu State, made up 780 ad hoc delegates, and over 200 statutory delegates, which included five of the seven governorship aspirants. Two of them are already statutory delegates.

Where then did they conjure up the 937 votes they claim their man, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, scored when 657 delegates were absent besides other delegates who shunned that sham called primary?

When 657 is removed from 1,008, you are left with 351 genuine delegates. Add to it the statutory and ad hoc delegates who shunned that charade at the stadium, you’ll be left with barely 200 genuine delegates there.

In Filbon, 672 delegates were accredited. This was made up of 538 delegates from Enugu North and Enugu East deliberately removed from the concocted delegates used by the government and other ad hoc and statutory delegates who weren’t at the stadium.

Again, on November 9, 2014, a day after the primary election, Ugwuanyi rushed to court to obtain an injunction restraining Eze from parading himself as the candidate.

The curious thing is, if he truly won the election, would he rush to court to put a road block on the way of someone who he said, didn’t participate in the election?

They know they did not participate in any genuine primary election. They know that the cerebral, focused and outspoken senator won the election, fair and square.

This same matter is a subject of two litigations, one in an Enugu High Court and another one in an Abuja High Court.

One would then ask, why sponsor write ups in the newspapers against Eze if not just because someone has something to hide and is hoping to confuse the judiciary by planting falsehood in the national dailies?

Anyone who followed the primary as I did and who listened to the electoral panel chairman when he admitted that he was handed a concocted delegates list would not be surprised that Ugwuanyi and his advisers can go to the extent of committing contempt of the court just to market a falsehood that cannot stand the test of time.

Ï% Omenka is resident in Enugu