By Vincent Ujumadu

Awka—CONTROVERSY is still trailing the congress to select the three –man ad-hoc delegates list from Anambra State’s 326 awards for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as dissenting voices have continued to rise from various interest groups, with the state chairman of the party, Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu saying that the panel members willingly cancelled the exercise following their inability to provide original result sheets for the congress.

The latest development trailing the exercise is the resignation of the secretary of the three –man panel, Mr. Ogbonna Victor Okorie, due to what he called a purported report being circulated that there was a congress in Anambra State.

Okorie described as total falsehood a statement that there was congress in any part of the state, adding that his conscience would not allow him to be part of such fraud.

His resignation letter read in part: “I wish to resign my membership of and secretaryship of the three-man delegate panel for Anambra State chaired by Mr. Jibrin Ahmed. My resignation is based on a purported report being circulated on the internet where they forged my signature on a fake report claiming that the three -man delegate election was held in the state.

“The said signature is absolutely not from my humble self, and thereby is a forgery. The letter in question is saying that there was an ad hoc delegates’ election in Anambra State. It is falsehood and deceit. My conscience will not allow me to get involved in such criminality and fraud as there was no such ad hoc delegates’ election in Anambra State on 30th April, 2022 and 1st May, 2022.

The state chairman of PDP, Ndubuisi Nwobu corroborated Okorie’s position in an interview with Vanguard, stating that following the inability of the panel to provide the original result sheets for the congress, a decision was taken to cancel it.

“The only letter I signed was the one saying there was no election and that the election had been cancelled at the party’s secretariat in Awka and materials handed over to the PDP administrative secretary in Awka alongside the photocopies of result sheets for the election. I never wrote or signed any other document.”

The letter was copied to the national secretariat of PDP, the National Chairman of the party, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra State,, the state Commissioner of Police,, the Director of DSS and Commandant of the Civil Defense Corps.

Nwobu said that the panel sent to Anambra was manipulated by a member of the party who housed them at a hotel in Enugu, adding that their actions on arrival in Awka gave them out as to their mission.

He said: “While the congress was slated for Saturday, the panel members arrived late and it was unanimously agreed that it should be shifted to Sunday. On that Sunday, while the delegates were seated at the state secretariat of PDP, the three man panel ignored them and went inside to address a few people.

“For several hours, there were arguments as to what their intention was and when they were asked to bring out the original sheets for the congress the chairman said they left them in his hotel room. Even when some people volunteered to accompany him to collect the materials from his hotel, he refused.

READ ALSO:

“Eventually it was agreed that the exercise should be cancelled in the interest of peace and harmony. Members of PDP in Anambra State were therefore surprised to see documents flying in the internet that there was a congress in Anambra State. This is most unfortunate.”

Nwobu debunked the allegation that some stakeholders in the party forced them to cancel the congress, arguing that the same people who have been causing confusion in Anambra PDP over the years were behind the botched congress at the weekend.

Recall that a letter written by the PDP’s 2022 primary election ward congresses electoral committee led by Ahmed Jibrin had alleged that thugs disrupted the congress, forcing the panel members to leave the scene.

The committee, in the letter dated May 1, a copy of which was seen by Vanguard narrated what allegedly happened on the day of the ward congresses.

The committee said that Tony Nwoye, Val Ozigbo and some others stormed the party secretariat with miscreants and asked for the original results sheets, which had been distributed at the time.

According to the committee, which also has Captain Frank Ntima, Amara Ogbu, Barr Azubuike Odoh and Engr Ogbonna Victor, as members, the PDP members who brought thugs to the party secretariat revealed that the results of the congress were not favourable to them.

They forced the committee members to do a letter cancelling the 3-ad-hoc delegate election and forced a Press Conference from the committee.

The decision to bring miscreants in and force the committee’s hands, the letter revealed, was an afterthought.

“They locked the entrance and compelled the committee to do a letter cancelling the exercise and after that forced us to do a press conference. They initially compelled the committee to sign the photocopies of the results in our possession and issued the same to the people on their own list of 3-man local government electoral panel. They later rescinded and asked us to cancel the election outright. Hence, handing over the signed photocopies to theirs through the administrative secretary of the party,” the committee revealed in the letter to the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu.

The letter also alleged that the committee members were held hostage for more than two hours.

The committee concluded by stating that the election was free and fair except for the ugly incident described.

Efforts to get both Dr. Tony Nwoye and Chief Val Ozigbo who were accused by the Ahmed Jibrin – led panel of using thugs to disrupt the congress and holding the panel members hostage were unsuccessful as they did not answer telephone calls made to them.

Vanguard News Nigeria