AIbom Assembly Aspirants Protest PDP Primaries Election Six aspirants for Akwa Ibom House of Assembly from Uruefong Oruko State Constituency have protested the conduct of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries election into the state house. The six aspirants that include Messrs. Ita Okpoyo; Edet Bassey; Paul Akaiso; Etifit Nkereuwem; Emmanuel Ating; Esin Otong. The aspirants in a press conference in Uruefong on Sunday described the conduct of Saturdays primaries election into the state house of assembly as farce and complete rape on democracy. Okpoyo, who is the immediate past assistant legal adviser to PDP in the state and aspirant, said the party office where the primaries election was supposed to be conducted was locked up. He said that all the aspirants had been ambushed as the purported primaries election was being conducted in Uyo stadium. He said that they and their supporters were in Uruefong Oruko PDP headquarters waiting for the arrival of materials from the state party headquarters in Uyo. “What we have seen on Saturday is a complete rape on democracy. “Until October 20, 2014, I was the assistant legal adviser of PDP in this state, the law on the conduct of primaries election is very clear. “The Electoral Law 2010 as amended clearly provides that the conduct of any primaries must be held in the headquarters of that area where the aspirants hail. “If it is the House of Representatives, it must be the headquarters of the Federal Constituency, and if it is the Senate, it must be the headquarters of the senatorial district of that area. “There is no proviso of any kind that says you can take it to anywhere. “The state party chairman, Mr Paul Ekpo, purportedly changed the venue from Uruefong Oruko to Uyo stadium. “This is an illegality, we cannot condone it, we say no to it, we say no to imposition. “We are prepared to defend it to any extent. “Let me say, even the PDP constitution itself and the partys guidelines, which had been issued for the conduct of this primaries, state clearly that the conduct of primaries election must be held in the headquarters of the state constituency. “We have an option to seek redress not only in the court of law, but finding an alternative platform to air out our grievances,” he said. In his comment, Nkereuwem, aspirant and former youth leader in Oro, expressed dissatisfaction at the conduct of the primaries election. He said the six aspirants had been cleared by the party to contest the primaries election, paid their dues, but where surprised they could be schemed out of the exercise. He said, “What we have seen today has never happened before in Uruefong Oruko. This is robbing the people of their democratic spirit.” In his reaction, the state chairman of PDP said the party decided to change the venue of the state house of assembly primaries election from Uruefong Oruko to Uyo for security reasons. Ekpo said that some aspirants had written to the state party exco to avert loss of lives and property if the elections were to be conducted in their respective headquarters. He said, “Some aspirants, not only in Uruefong Oruko, wrote to us that they wanted a change in the revenue of the state house of assembly primaries election because of threat to their lives and property.”
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 12:01:47 +0000
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