The Abia State branch of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) goes to the poll today to pick its governorship candidate from among the contestants, including Bob Ogu, Eric Opa Okey Ahiaiwe and Mayor Lucky Igbokwe in Umuahia.
Ahead of the exercise, one of the aspirants, Igbokwe spoke with The Guardian on why a fresh primary should exclusively be for the previous contestants and not new faces.
He explained that at the last primary election during which the Abia PDP declared the late Professor Uche Ikonne winner, he came a distant second despite the alleged irregularities and arm-twisting. Igbokwe, who ended up working with Ikonne as the youth ambassador for his campaign network, wept when Ikonne’s family released a press statement confirming his demise.
Right now, the governorship race has been zoned to the Isiala Ngwa Local Government Area where Ikonne hailed from, and new entrants are being admitted to take part in the race. Igbokwe has protested that this should not be allowed.
The four contestants, so far, are Igbokwe, Bob Ogu, Eric Opa and Okey Ahiaiwe and there was a question on who should succeed Ikonne as Abia PDP governorship candidate. Prior to this, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued an official statement directing the Abia PDP to conduct a fresh primary in 14 days. The state PDP Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary, Elder Abraham Amah declared: “Following the death of the Abia PDP gubernatorial candidate, Prof. Eleazar Uche Ikonne on January 25, 2022, and the subsequent directive by INEC to conduct a fresh primary within 14 days to replace him, members of the Abia State PDP Caucus met and zoned the vacant gubernatorial seat to Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area, the home LGA of the late Ikonne.”
Igbokwe is asking: Does zoning the primary to a local government meet the requirements of INEC in the electoral law? According to him, these interrogations are necessary to avoid litigations that could further downgrade the electoral value of the PDP in the run up to the March 10 governorship election.
Source: The Guardian