Recently, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in Abia was in the eye of the storm following rumours of attempt by the party to circumvent its three-man delegate congress that led to protest by its faithful in Umuahia.
However, rumours of having held the congress have been dispelled by the state secretary of the party, Barr David Iroh that the three-man delegate congress did not hold in the state, while expressing his surprises about rumours that the congress held in the state.
Addressing newsmen in Umuahia, Iro explained “The three-man delegate congress (monitoring team)was supposed to have been here but unfortunately on the first day that we expected the management team from Abuja to arrive, they did not come that day”.
On Tuesday he said, “We had a group of people that came to protest that first, the delegate forms were not sold in Abia state and that they made several efforts to buy delegates forms and that the forms were not sold in the state. They also raised up another issue that they were privy to the fact that the delegate election has been hijacked.
The chairman, Rt. Hon Asiforo Okere he said had addressed the protesters and told them that delegate forms were not sold in Abia State and that people that bought the forms bought them from Abuja and he addressed the protesters and they were all satisfied and they left.
“But they asked cardinal questions, “how come you did not sell delegates forms? How would you know the number of people that are going to participate in the congress? You did not paste notice of the list of those that are qualified, and those that bought the forms for the election. So, how are you going to conduct the election? Those were the salient questions that the protesters left before they departed.
“Those questions were not answered. The chairman only told them that we did not sell forms in Abia state and that was the position”.
Iroh explained that unknown to some of the party officials including him, the congress monitoring team and the Appeal panel teams were in the office of the chairman when he walked in, “but was not introduced to us”.
The chairman said that the congress was not going to hold again and that was on Tuesday since it was a public holiday and INEC had said that they were not going to come, adding “Since then, I as the State Secretary of PDP have not seen or set my eyes on those monitoring team from Abuja and nothing has been communicated to us with respect to their whereabouts”.
According to the State Secretary, “from every indication, their mission was different”, as the three-man congress monitors mixed up with the protesters and disappeared to an unknown place by me, while the Appeal Panel went into the hall and sat and then started addressing those aspirants that were initially disqualified”.
Further to him, the three-man delegate congress in Abia state is shrouded in rumours and speculations, stating that it has not been done, stating “The people that came from Abuja, I don’t have their particulars, I don’t know their identities, I don’t know what their mission was, I didn’t see the materials with which they came to conduct the three-man delegate congress and we don’t have the list of those that bought the forms from Abuja to know how many people are contesting, how many people bought forms in each of the wards. We don’t have such records.
“So, even if you say you are coming to conduct election, you should furnish my office or the office of the chairman with the list of how many persons that bought forms in Abuja and which will also state persons that bought forms by wards. Those are the pre-requisite of what ought to have been done before the valid congress would take place.
“So, coming back to hear that speculation that the election have been conducted, I feel that it is one of those political speculations and rumours that are making round in this situation and atmosphere we found ourselves. PDP Abia State has not conducted any three-man delegate congress election”.
According to him, “Government House is not a party secretariat and can never be a party secretariat. It (three-man congress) can never be done in the Government House and I know that Abia State Government would not allow it to be done in the Government House. It is a field exercise. If it is done in the government House, it is null and void”, adding that the issue is a constitutional matter.
“If we are not going to conduct the three-man delegate election, we can do away with it and use our statutory delegates list”, or “I envisage a situation where litigations would begin to annul everything that we are labouring for”, he said, stating “It spells doom for the PDP in Abia State and any person that is trying to force that three-man delegate on our party people, those people or that person does not mean well for the party.
He assured party people that the National Working Committee of the party cannot live to see imposition, impunity rearing its ugly head in Abia State.as “if we are going to sell out the party, we are going to lose the state. This is because everybody is going to be very angry”, noting “Let every person of good mind in Abia State resist every part of the thing. That is the only way we can move our state forward.
The way out he said “is for the members of the party to summon a caucus meeting of this party. This issue of three-man delegates is trying to divide us and we cannot pretend not to know the defect, adding “Silently, all of them are in the same page with me, but unfortunately, they may not be courageous to come out to say it”.
and then