Edo Guber: Appeal Committee Hears Complaints against Delegate Election

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Appeal Committee hearing complaints from some of the governorship aspirant for the February 22 governorship primary election yesterday met individually with the aggrieved aspirants.

This is coming as the state Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Tony Azigbeme, declared that the last Sunday three-man delegate election to elect the governorship candidate remains the best in the history of the party’s internal elections “because of the new innovations introduced by the National Working Committee (NWC).” The appeal committee was headed by the former Governor of Baylesa State, Senator Sierake Dickson, which had a closed-door on individual bases at the national secretariat of the PDP in Abuja.

According to a source that spoke to journalists on why the committee adopted individual approach, ‘’All the petitioners have different complaints and, therefore, it was resolved to allow each of the aspirants to present their petition individual.”

The source told reporters that the appeal committee were armed with video clips of the three man delegate election and they were asked to specifically state their areas of complaint from the video clips.

The usual pomp and pageantry that heralds such events was absent at the party secretariat, as some of the protesting aspirants were seen at the party secretariat, except Asue Igbodalo.

Meanwhile, appealing with journalists, the PDP state Chairman, Azigbeme, denounced the statement of the state Secretary, Ogie Vasco , saying he was not speaking for the state executive committee of the party.

The state publicity secretary in a statement said: “The leaders of the Edo State chapter of the PDP have rejected in totality the results of the purported ward congresses that took place on February 4, 2024, across the state. The results are not a true reflection of what took place, as they only represent a Governor Godwin Obaseki Congress, not a PDP Congress.

“After a cursory overview of the whole charade put up by the state government and certain individuals in the NWC, the leaders in their wisdom have denounced the whole process as a sham marred by acute manipulation.”

But Azigbeme, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, said: “First, the state publicity secretary spoke for himself, he did not speak for the party. As far as we are concerned, the Edo State delegate election was the best thing that happened to the PDP since 1999.

“The elections went on very well and peacefully. This is the best organised congress ever held in the history of PDP in Nigeria since 1999. I know this because I have gone to other states and I have been in Edo State and witnessed the conduct of congresses until now.

“For first time in the history of the PDP, they created party register in all the 192 ward collation centres where the congress held. And this is first time too when we are holding the congress in INEC recognize collation centres. Normally it is in front of people houses and all that rubbish.

“We have started to raise the bar. For the first time, the NWC did something novel; they gave the list of those that bought forms and return the forms. Their names and passport photos were fix on the papers, so we had a very robust and elaborate programme for the conduct of the congress and the congress went on peacefully.”