The Lagos State chapter of the PDP has urged the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to cancel the House of Assembly and House of Representatives primaries slated for Sunday in Lagos.
The PDP chairman in Lagos state, Philip Aivoji, while addressing a news conference alongside other state executives of the party, alleged that the ad hoc delegates list brought by the electoral committees for both primaries had been compromised.
“It is imperative to state that copies of the ad-hoc list that emanated from the state and submitted to INEC is completely different from the one brought by the committee for the purpose of the exercise,” he said.
Uncertainty, tension and apprehension trailed the conduct of the primaries as delegates and aspirants waited in various venues in the local government areas for the party’s election officials from its national headquarters, who, at the time of filing this report, were yet to be seen at any of the venues across the state.
He said the committee chairman and secretary of the election committee meant to conduct the State House of Assembly Primary election had not reported to the state chairman or state organ of the party.
The processes have been compromised ab initio and skewed to favour particular aspirant.
“We, therefore, call for outright cancellation of the election exercise, doing otherwise will jeopardise the chances of the party at the 2023 polls,” Mr Aivoji said.
The chairman said that if the exercise was allowed to carry on, it would also lead to a plethora of endless litigations afterwards.
He said the process that threw up the authentic delegates list was done in consonance with the party’s constitutions all relevant stakeholders were consulted and carried along.
We want to know the person at the national level that gave them (electoral committee) the order not to consult the state executives the exercise.
“We have been in the valley for so long, this is an opportunity for us to get it right to win the general elections that is coming in the state.
We must douse the tension now because if we go on with this process, we cannot guarantee the safety of the committee that came from Abuja.”
(NAN)