PDP primaries: Lagos executive committee rejects delegates list, calls for outright cancellation

By Ihechukwu Sunday
The executive committee of the Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and five of the six gubernatorial aspirants, have rejected the ad-hoc delegate list brought by the party’s electoral committee for the conduct of the State House of Assembly and House of Representative elections scheduled to hold on Sunday, May 22, calling for its outright cancellation.
Addressing journalists in Lagos earlier today, the state chairman of PDP, Philip Aivoje flanked by five of the six gubernatorial aspirants in the state and other party stakeholders said they were shocked to see that the list brought to the state by the electoral committee did not reflect the authentic elected ad-hoc delegates as conducted by the organs of the party at ward levels and supervised by officers of the Department of State Service (DSS) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“It is imperative to state that copies of the ad-hoc list that emanated from the state and submitted to INEC are completely different from the one brought by the committee for the purpose of the exercise,” he stated.
He noted that contrary to the provision of the electoral guidelines of the party, the election committee came to the state with a list of venues for the primary election and already chosen electoral officers; a development he said was unacceptable because that is the responsibility of the state executive committee of the party.
“Also the committee chairman and the secretary of the election committee meant to conduct the State House of Assembly primary election have not reported to the state chairman or state organ of the party. Up till this moment, we cannot reach out to the committee chairman and secretary; their telephones have either been switched off or unreachable,” he noted.
He alleged that the process has already been compromised and skewed to favour a particular candidate and stressed that with such development there was no guarantee that the primary would be free, fair and credible.
He urged the national leadership of the party under Dr. Iyorcha Ayu to cancel the election exercise, warning that doing otherwise would not only jeopardize the chances of the party at the polls, but also lead to a plethora of endless litigation afterwards.
Asked what the exco has done since it realized that the authentic delegate list had been tampered with, Aivoje said he was informed that an anonymous national officer told the party’s National Working Committee not to deal with the state executive under his leadership because they were still in court over the authentic leadership of the party in the state.
He, therefore, said the entire Lagos executive committee alongside the five gubernatorial aspirants and other stakeholders would want to know the national officer who told the electoral committee not to deal with the current state executive committee because of legal issues. He stated that there was no litigation as the matter has been resolved in favour of the current executive by the court.