In the main opposition Party, Peoples Democratic Party, there is uncertainty at the weekend about the party’s participation in the governorship election.
This followed an escalation of the party’s leadership crisis, as the two men who laid claim to its headship sends different electoral panels to the state for the party’s governorship primaries scheduled to hold tomorrow. And the Independent National Electoral Commission said yesterday that it had “not recognised any of the factions” or taken a position on the PDP crisis.
INEC said it was yet to decide on the crisis rocking PDP. Chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, said last night that the commission was still observing the situation and will at the appropriate time make its position known.
“The truth of the matter is that INEC has not taken any position,” Oyekanmi said by telephone.
“INEC has not recognised any of the factions as at today. When we do, we will issue a public statement and we will state why we are recognising any of the factions. But as of today, INEC has not recognised any PDP group. Our prayer is that the warring parties will reconcile as soon as possible.”
The PDP crisis worsened last week when the ousted national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi – leaders of the two warring factions in the party – set up separate electoral committees to conduct the governorship primaries in Edo State.
Sheriff continued to lay claim to the chairmanship of the party, despite the dissolution of the National Executive Committee and the National Working Committee, which he led, during the May 21 national convention of the party in Port Harcourt.
The Port Harcourt convention, which held amid a parallel meeting of some PDP leaders in Abuja, constituted a national caretaker committee headed by Makarfi.
As part of preparations for the Edo State governorship poll, the Makarfi committee set up an electoral panel to conduct the primaries. The committee advertised the nomination forms for sale at the cost of N16 million.
The electoral panel, which has former Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswan, as chairman, had already conducted ad-hoc congresses to choose delegates for the governorship primaries.
Suswan said three aspirants had indicated interest in contesting for the PDP governorship ticket and had already signed an undertaken to abide by the outcome of the primary election scheduled for tomorrow in Benin City.
The Sheriff camp has also gone ahead to set up a committee headed by Senator Hope Uzodinma to oversee the Edo State governorship primary and congresses for the forthcoming election.
Sheriff announced the membership of the election committee last Monday when he launched a comeback at the national secretariat after initially being denied entry by security agents. He insisted that the only people that will be screened by the committee were those with evidence of N10 million payment for nomination.
“We have also asked all interested PDP members to come and purchase nomination forms for the Edo State governorship primary. The forms for the primary election is N10 million and N16 million as was announced by the Makarfi-led caretaker committee”,” he said.
Spokesman of the PDP national caretaker committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, had alleged that the APC federal government was sponsoring Sheriff to weaken the former ruling party ahead of the Edo State election.
According to Adeyeye, “The APC has contracted Sheriff and his cohorts to scuttle the chances of the PDP in the Edo governorship election.
We have credible intelligence that sheriff had a meeting on Sunday night with an APC governor from North-west, where it was finalised that he would be given full security and financial support to exacerbate the crisis in the PDP with the objective of preventing the PDP from presenting a candidate for the Edo governorship elections, or in the very least, to prevent the PDP from offering a serious challenge to APC whose electoral fortunes have continued to nose- dive.”
(Thisday)
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