By Bevelyn Ehia, Abakaliki
Sequel to the purported primary elections held a week ago by the Silas Onu faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State, the party, on the approval of its National Working Committee(NWC) led by Iyorchia Ayu, began its primaries on the 4th to end on 5th June 2022.
Tochukwu Okorie the chairman of the party in Ebonyi state disclosed this on Sunday, while addressing journalists on the ongoing primaries.
Okorie explained that, having been enmeshed in crisis, the NWC taught it wise to give peace a chance by allowing the conduct of fair primary elections to hold in the state.
He said, “It is gratifying to note that the National Working Committee thought it wise to conduct a fair process of electing candidates in Ebonyi. I think it got to the root of the issues in the state and found out what the truth really is. In response to that, they magnanimously have allowed Ebonyi to toll the part of peace by slating elections for 4th and 5th June 2022.
“As you can see from the enormous turnout of the party members in this place today, Ebonyi PDP and indeed the state has won in all of the troubles we have been through. We are happy and confident that the process will turn in the best result.
“What the law says is that it is the political party that shall notify the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) of any upcoming election. That we have complied with. The onus of monitoring or observing elections of political parties lies squarely on the commission.
“It is not the role of the political party to go and drag INEC or its officials from their homes to come and observe elections. Having done what we are ought to have done, we believe we are standing on a very fairground.
“Notice of the elections did not come today. As of yesterday, for example, the security agencies were notified and even the INEC was in the know, only that they refused to receive the letters sent to them.
“The National Executive committee of the party in its wisdom taught that there was a court order. Well, election is a test of popularity so it doesn’t matter which list it is.”