Senator Ayogu Eze whose group held a parallel primary for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket in Enugu State where he was declared winner is said to be exploring several options to ensure his ‘mandate’ is validated.
Sources in his campaign said he had formally protested to the party leadership alleging non-compliance to the party’s guidelines in the conduct of the party’s governorship primary where Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was elected the party’s flag bearer.
Besides, Eze’s lawyers were said to be readying applications to seek court’s enforcement of an alleged injunction barring the substitution of the list of delegates elected in the party’s November 1 ward congress in the state.
To the senator, he is the only PDP candidate in the state, since his election followed all the guidelines as stipulated by the party.
In his first official statement after the primary, Eze said that suggestion on the media that there were two parallel primaries was not true, insisting that the Primary where he was elected was the only authentic one where delegates that were elected during the ward congress in the state voted.
I’m the statement titled ‘I AM THE ONLY PDP CANDIDATE FOR ENUGU STATE,’ he said:
“My attention has been drawn to insinuations that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, held two governorship primaries in state. This is not true.
“There was only one primary election at which the genuine delegates, elected on November 1, 2014 voted for me out of their freewill.
“What happened was that during the pre-primary briefing by the Governorship Primary Electoral Panel the bewildered aspirants were told that the list of delegates given to the panel from Abuja was different from the names of delegates elected at the November 1, 2014 congresses in the state.
“The electoral panel was also shown a certified true copy of the list of delegates obtained from a Federal High Court in Abuja, which it confirmed was different from the list given to them.
I also reported to the panel that these genuine delegates were being denied accreditation and entrance into the venue of the primary election.
“I was heading to the venue of the primary election when these frustrated delegates called me to address them at Filbon Hotel, New Haven, Enugu, where they had already assembled to ponder their next move.
“Once I arrived the venue they insisted they must conduct the primary. They went ahead to elect me the PDP candidate.
“The electoral panel commenced their work at the so called primary election venue very late in the evening because the government had difficulty assembling people to come to the venue.
“They filled the stadium, venue of the supposed primary election, with non party members. It was an assemblage of passersby, touts, cheerleaders and office messengers who were hurriedly railroaded to the venue as a face saving measure.
“I want to state that I have the highest regards for the governorship electoral panel, headed by High Highness, King Asara Asara.
“Their hands were tied by the manipulations that produced the illegal list at the party headquarters in Abuja and they clearly told all the aspirants so.
“The electoral panel addressed seven governorship aspirants at the pre-primary briefing but only two of the seven made it to the stadium with the panel because of the panel’s confession that the list of delegates given to them was different from the list obtained at congresses of November 1, 2014 in the 260 wards of Enugu State.
“There could not therefore have been another primary election in Enugu State. A gathering of jesters and non party men could not have been described as a properly constituted forum of the party to elect a governorship candidate for our great party.
Even the presence of a few responsible people at the venue was not enough to confer any respectability on such an illegal gathering.
“Governorship is too serious a business to be treated with such levity and carelessness.
“I’m the duly elected candidate of the party for the February general election and no conspiracy and wishful thinking can stop me from fulfilling a God ordained mission for the people of Enugu State.
Let me thank the delegates for being bold and for standing firm in the face of fierce intimidation to elect me the PDP candidate for the general election.
“I promise them and the people of Enugu State that I will not disappoint them.
“I am poised to take Enugu to the next level of physical transformation and spiritual rebirth.”
