By Jimitota Onoyume

PORT HARCOURT— Activities were grounded, yesterday, for several hours at the state secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Aba Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as hundreds of youths from the eight local government areas that make up Rivers West senatorial district, protested what they described as the sham primary election of the party for the senatorial district.

The protesters, who demanded the cancellation of the exercise, insisted that there was no election on the said day.

Chief Boma Dappa and others who spoke to newsmen during the protest, said that the former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr. Chibudom Nwuche, was robbed of victory in the primary election.

“Rivers West senatorial primary election was a sham. We say no to imposition and Chibudom Nwuche is the peoples’ choice.

“We are here as members of our great party, to express our dissatisfaction with the manner the Rivers West senatorial primaries were conducted. We know that Rivers State is a PDP state. We voted for PDP but the government we voted for has taken our mandate to the All Progressives Congress, APC. PDP now stands as an opposition party. We are going to face an election next year as an opposition party. For that singular reason, we need candidates that can successfully win elections for the party. The youths you are seeing here are from the eight councils of Ahoada East and West, Abua/Odual, Degema, Asari Toru, Akuku Toru and Bonny.

“Godfatherism in Rivers politics brought us to this level, therefore, everybody is aware now. Our people want the best choice to represent them,” Dappa said.