By John Ighodaro
CALABAR—A group has emerged in the Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State,  calling for the cancellation of the recently concluded Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, primaries, organised by the Cross River State chapter of the party.

The primaries which were held  to select the party’s chairmanship and councillorship flag bearers for the August 28,  2010 council polls in the state, the group said, were fraught with irregularities.

The group, Educated Citizens of Boki, which has Dr. Paul Bessong as president, said the party’s congresses were “fraught with irregularities as some chairmanship aspirants tendered forged certificates to the PDP screening committee and the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission.”

In a petition to the state Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, Dr. Bessong alleged that a West African School Certificate number NGWASSCP 395345, allegedly belonging to one of the chairmanship aspirant is fake.

According to him, “there were discrepancies between the name on the certificate and the image of the candidate on the passport photo that was allegedly submitted to WAEC as the candidate that sat for the GCE examination.”

The group said it  sent the petition because members of the group were determined to ensure that school dropouts and other educationally ill-equipped politicians are not be allowed to contest elections into public offices in Boki.

The group also claimed that apart from the certificate issue, the process of selecting candidates for the area, was unacceptable, arguing that some delegates to the congress, allegedly voted through telephone text messages and phone calls, which they noted  was ridiculous.