Date Published: 01/12/11

Ojo, Ardo petition Nwodo on Kogi, Adamawa Governorship Primaries

Fall out of last Monday’s governorship primary in some states chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have started to trickle in as two governorship aspirants: former Attorney-General of the federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo and Dr. Umar Ardo, yesterday formally petitioned against the outcome of the primary in Kogi and Adamawa states.

Both of them are insisting that what emerged as result of the congresses in their respective states were “a charade and complete slap on democratic principles, fair play, equity and level playing field for aspirants”.

Ojo who told journalists in Abuja that he has formally petitioned the national chairman of the party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, claimed that the congress was completely manipulated to his disadvantage.

He insisted that not only were the entire exercise carried out in the dark, none of the constitutional guidelines and the rules set out in the Electoral Guidelines for Primary Elections 2010 of the PDP, were followed.

“Accreditation of delegates commenced at 4.47 pm and ended at 9.00 pm on January 9, 2011 in the dark with only a flash light as there was no light a the entrance of the stadium where accreditation took place.

“The number of delegates accredited for the election was not announced before the commencement of the polls as required by section 21 (e ) of the EGPE, 2010. The counting of votes was not done in the full view of the party agents and all efforts to ensure that this was done proved abortive as only the member of the panel counting the votes saw the ballot papers counted.

“None of the agents of the aspirants were allowed to see the ballot papers being counted as the returning officer insited that the agents should all sit down at a distance from the table where the counting was taking place.

“Up until the election, I was the leading aspirant in the state in all the run off polls conducted. It is therefore impossible that I scored only 30 votes out of almost 1,000 votes cast by the delegates.

“With the observations, it is therefore crystal clear even to a blind man that the said gubernatorial primary election was fraught with gross irregularities and malpractices, thus making the outcome questionable, objectionable, unacceptable and should therefore be cancelled,” the Ojo insisted.

On his part, Alhaji Ardo, said “the exercise was anything but free and fair in that the processes leading to it were a charade and a mockery of democracy”.

Asking Nwodo to cancel the result of the primary in which incumbent Governor Murtala Nyako was re-nominated, he insited that all known norms and rules of the PDP were violated.

Said he: “To undertake this exercise, the NWC of the Party fixed 28th December 2010 and an Electoral Panel headed by Mr. Salvado was appointed for Adamawa State.

“The Panel arrived in Yola, the State capital, and without any prior briefing session with all aspirants, met with the Governor and the ‘State PDP EXCO’, and returned to Abuja claiming to have conducted the delegate election.

“In the confusion created, two sets of results were submitted to the National Secretariat of the Party – one by the Governor and another by Gen. Buba Marwa, also then a PDP Gubernatorial Aspirant.

“Chief Joel Madaki and I, the remaining two Aspirants, in our commitment to ensure fairness and sense of belonging to all PDP members in the State, had on the 30th of December 2010 forwarded a joint petition to the office of the National Chairman on the Ad-hoc delegates election purported to have been held in Adamawa State on the 28th of December, 2010 (please see attached ‘A’).

“Thankful to the wise counsel of the NWC, the charade election was cancelled and rescheduled for Monday, 3rd January, 2011.

“Another Panel, this time under the Chairmanship of the Assistant National Organizing Secretary of the PDP, was constituted to conduct the rescheduled congresses.

“This Panel arrived in the State at about 1.30pm with the afternoon flight of IRS Airlines on the appointed date of the election – i.e. Monday, 3rd January 2011.

“At about 2pm the Panel Members came to the State Secretariat in company of the ‘State Chairman’, immediately assembled serving Commissioners and Advisers and charged them with the responsibility of conducting the election in all the 21 LGAs of the State. In front of us and the press they distributed election materials to them.

“Dishonestly, however, they tagged them as Monitoring Officers (please see attached ‘B’). If they were Monitoring Officers why give them Election Materials?

“The Panel Chairman then announced that the election would hold the next day, Tuesday 4th January, with the Commissioners and Advisers as the Electoral Panels of the LGAs.

“The election-materials distribution exercise lasted till about 4.30pm. It should be pointed out here that the National PDP Panel Members and the ‘State EXCO’ did not at all seek the input of any of the Gubernatorial Aspirants or other Aspirants in the constitution of the LGA Electoral Panels nor did they incorporate same.

“ However, unknown to us, in the night all the earlier distributed result sheets were filled with already shortlisted names compiled by the Governor in active connivance with the ‘State EXCO Members’ and handed over to the Panel Chairman.

“The next day, while Party members, believing that elections were to hold, were trooping out to the various Ward Headquarters to cast their vote, the Panel Members took the morning flight back to Abuja with the forged list and submitted to the National Secretariat as the elected Delegates.

“By sunset, disenfranchised, party members throughout the State realized, belatedly, that they had once again been taken for a ride.

“Immediately, we took the next available flight to Abuja where I again forwarded a joint-petition together with Chief Joel Madaki alleging the fraudulent manner the rescheduled congresses were conducted (please
see attachment ‘C’).

“However, our petition was not considered and the fraudulent list was approved by the National Secretariat. Thus, it was this list that was used for the PDP Gubernatorial Primaries of Monday, 10th January 2011 in which Governor Murtala Nyako was said to have been re-elected.

“On the ground of the above stated pre-Primary election fraud, I challenge the validity and legitimacy of the Gubernatorial Primaries and therefore appeal to the Panel to cancel the entire process and order for its repeat in a fair, just and transparent manner”.