The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rerun primaries for Ajeromi-Ifelodun Federal Constituency has again been cancelled following protests over alleged delegates list alteration.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 34 delegates from 11 wards were expected to vote in the primaries.
NAN reports that Francis Chima, Wilson Deriwari, Emilia Ezude and Rita Orji were the aspirants contesting for the House of Representatives for the constituency.
Kasimu Ebozogie, a member of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the PDP primaries, alleged that the delegates’ list had been altered because of the unfamiliar names on the list.
“We had wanted to peacefully follow the directives of the national working committe for rerun.
“However, we were surprised that the names being called as delegates by the official handling the election were not those delegates elected by us democratically,” he said.
Mr Ebozogie also said the paper from where the list was read was not that of PDP document because the logo on the document was different from the new logo of the party.
“So, we protested. We also appreciate the timely intervention of the police on ground that prevented the situation from degenerating into something else,” he said.
Mr Ebozogie urged the party leaders to present to the public, the name of the candidate that emerged from the last primaries which he said was Mr Chima.
He noted that the election was free, fair and credible.
“I will not advise the party to go into the next election without a candidate for Ajeromi-Ifelodun federal constituency,” he said.
Olatunji Ajiwe, the PDP secretary in Ajeromi Ifelodun, said that Mr Chima won the primary election which was conducted on May 22, but because the elections were generally cancelled, the result was not used.
“We only want them to use the list that the national chairman and the executive committee gave us against working with another list.
“We urge the leadership of the party to come to our aid by giving the people their mandate of Chima representing them.”
Meanwhile, one of the aspirants, Mrs Orji said the delegates list was the list that they used for the House of Assembly, Senate and for the Governorship primaries.
“So, why will they say that the delegates list was changed. This is the list that they have been using to vote all the while,” she said.
(NAN)
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