PDP: Aggrieved members seek cancellation of primaries in Bayelsa

Barely two months after the conduct of the last Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s primaries to choose candidates for state and National Assemblies in the forthcoming 2019 general elections in Bayelsa State, some aggrieved party faithful who pride themselves as “Loyal Members of PDP” have called for the cancellation of the whole exercise.

They said the process was skewed in favour of Governor Seriake Dickson’s allies only.

According to them, the call which is coming less than two months to the general elections, was to ensure that PDP continued with its firm grip of the state.

In a petition to the National Chairman of PDP, Chief Uche Secondus, signed by Amb. Kenny Sotonye Fiseye and seven other members of the group, which was made available to newsmen in Yenagoa on Monday, the group threatened to dump the party and support any other opposition party if the leadership of PDP does not hearken to their plea.

They said: “We have no doubt about the commitment of the leadership of our great party to fair and equitable process which should permeate through the total political manufacturing procedure of our great party.

“It is in the line of holding political process within the concept of credibility, integrity, equity, fairness, and justice that we are constrained to alert the party about the brazenly crude process which accompanied the purported October 2018 National and State Assembly Primaries which the National Working Committee appointed Hon. Williams Alamene, to conduct in Bayelsa State.

“The so-called primary election which produced all the current candidates of the party, who coincidentally were handpicked by the Bayelsa State Governor Honorable Henry Seriake Dickson, was nothing but a mockery of democracy and a charade of the equitable process of electing people to represent the people and the interest of the party.

“The process was devoid of all democratic ethics and values and against the mode of primary which was ordered by the party, as other aspirants, who legitimately procured nomination forms to participate in the primaries, were illegally disqualified, harassed, prevented and in some cases, shut out of the venue, all these under the supervision of Governor Dickson.

“Furthermore, because of the premeditated choice of the particular aspirants by the governor, party membership register was not used and eligible delegates were denied voting right, and were replaced with aides and cronies of the governor.

“In addition, on the day of the election, materials were not made available in all the centres and voters were shocked to learn of the result of an election which was not conducted while they were waiting for the arrival of the officials and materials with which the voting process will be done.

“What we had in Bayelsa State during the Primary election was a brazen daylight disenfranchisement of other aspirants, so the results of that exercise are products of an unholy, filthy and unjust political process, whereby other aspirants and delegates were denied their rights, thereby imposing on them unpopular candidates who were not voted for and who has no moral latitude to represent the PDP in the upcoming elections, hence the need to cancel the primaries and ensure that right thing is done before its late.”