LG congress: Thugs hold PDP committee hostage in Ebonyi osundefender.org/?p=193715 Suspected thugs yesterday held the Congress Ad-hoc committee sent by the National leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Ebonyi state to conduct Local government congresses hostage. The committee members who came to the state party secretariat to conduct the delegate election were locked in an arguement with the party leadership in the state over the authenticity of the three-man list which made the team from Abuja. The team made attempt to leave the place without the conduct of the election but were blocked along the Enugu-Abakaliki expressway and were taken back to the entrance of the party office, where they were held for about an hour. The thugs chanting solidarity songs in support of one of the governorship aspirants and Deputy Governor of the State, Engr Dave Umahi were led by a member of the South East zonal committee, Ali Odefa who hails from the State. The zonal officer also had in his entourage scores of police officers allegedly imported into the state. The state chairman of the party Chief Ben Akpa said that the committee members arrived the state late and had decided to cancel the congresses due to disagreements with the state working committee on the list of returning officers to use for the election. According to him, “The team from Abuja came into the state and were received by the governor and commissioner of police, and later came to the party secretariat where we also received them. We also outlined what had to be done in keeping with the constitution and guidelines for conducting the congresses as approved by the national working committee”. “But to our dismay, we found out that the committee members were already issued with a list of returning officers signed by the Deputy Chairman of Ebonyi State PDP chief Joseph Onwe without the knowledge of the chairman and the working committee of the state chapter of the PDP” “They also came with a list of the three man delegates elected during last week’s state ward congress. They were informed that those elected last week were not supposed to vote. In fact the guidelines were read to them and they saw that those elected last week were not the ones to vote this Saturday”. “But they insisted that they wanted to use the list of returning officers signed by the Deputy Chairman instead of the one submitted by the state working committee and the substantive chairman which is myself. So, we argued it up and down, and they insisted that unless they were allowed to use the Deputy Chairman’s list, the elections won’t hold”. “He also said he got a call that unless he uses the list from Abuja he was not to conduct the election. After saying that, he got up and left. He said he was going to see the Governor and Commissioner of Police and Director of SSS to notify them that election will not hold today”. But when they drove out of the PDP Secretariat, they turned right towards Enugu instead of left towards Abakaliki. After we appealed to them vehemently that they should report to the governor and the CP and SSS director, they agreed to return to government house. The vehicles were turned around, but when they got to the front of the party secretariat, Honourable Ali Odefa led a team of young men and also with full police escort blocked the team from going to government house”. “They (the crowd) said they wanted them(the committee) to come to the party secretariat and to start distribution of election materials using the list from Abuja.” The blockade in front of the PDP secretariat led to traffic logjam for about an hour on the Abakaliki-Enugu expressway. As this was happening, Governor Martin Elechi arrived the scene with his security aides. Seeing the approaching governor’s convoy, the PDP zonal officer, Ali Odefa mounted the Toyota Jeep and started addressing the people”. “We are here to put an end to the rape of our democracy. We will not allow this denial of our democratic rights to continue. We are ready to die to defend our rights to free and fair election. If they want they should kill us all. We will not surrender”, he said to the loud cheer of the youths.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 11:47:10 +0000
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