Oshiomhole breached electoral process - Sylva fires back

Former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva has dismissed the claims by Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, who headed Tuesday’s All Progressives Congress (APC) Electoral Committee’s primary, that he scuttled it.

Timipre Sylva

In a statement yesterday in Yenagoa, the state capital, by his Media Adviser, Doifie Buokoribo, the former governor said: “It is unfortunate that people like Oshiomhole, …who pretend to be incorruptible, would conduct himself in the manner in which he did in relation to the Bayelsa State governorship primary. It was clear that Oshiomhole never wanted to conduct the primary as scheduled.

“First, on his request, the primary was shifted from its earlier date of Saturday, September 19, to Tuesday, September 22. The grouse of the delegates was that the primary had been shifted once at Oshiomhole’s request. That shift caused enough hardship already. The ‘comrade’ was again shifting the goal post, without giving consideration to the hapless delegates. It was that frustration that we were managing. It is so sad that the governor did not appreciate our effort.

“Second, as chairman of the APC Electoral Committee, Oshiomhole knew that accreditation of delegates was to begin at 8am …but he came to the venue of the programme well past noon. After he arrived at that late hour, he proceeded with a meeting with the committee members and another meeting with the aspirants. He clearly had preconceived plans about the Bayelsa APC governorship primary.

“Third, Oshiomhole cannot really say anything about the primary because he left the venue at the time voting began. Oshiomhole set the process in motion for voting to begin before he excused himself on the grounds that he was going to eat, and he mandated other members of the committee to carry on without him.

“The world needs to know that the Bayelsa State Electoral Committee is made up of seven members and, of the seven, only Oshiomhole left. The other six remained, conducted the primary and declared Sylva winner.

“Fourth, it bothers on pettiness for Oshiomhole to quote me as the antagonist to new entrants to our party. Every discussion I had with the governor was public. The only private conversation I had with him was when he walked up to me and asked me if I truly believed he was working against my interest. To that I answered ‘YES’. As a man of integrity, he even offered to step down as chairman. If he had stepped down, would that have invalidated the primary? We should refrain from exaggerating our worth and integrity. Let other good people judge our character.

“After all, I was the one that received all new entrants. Oshiomhole was invited and he did not come.

“Fifth, Oshiomhole came to Yenagoa with a clear agenda, which was to get me out of the race at all cost. We are aware that he had been lobbying at the centre to get me out of the race to pave the way for one of the aspirants. Indeed, one of the aspirants had boasted openly that Oshiomhole would cancel the primary once he arrived, shortly before his arrival.

“Oshiomhole should not tell lies; if I was not there, contrary to his insinuation that I rented thugs to manhandle him, the crowd would have manhandled him. I personally accompanied Oshiomhole to the gate when he was going to eat…”

Oshiomhole breached electoral process - Sylva fires back

Nigeria 2015: PDP Presidential primaries — LIVE UPDATES

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has today begun its two-day National Convention at Eagles Square, Abuja.

President Jonathan

Top on the agenda of the convention is the ratification of President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s candidate in the February 14 presidential election and that of Adamu Mu’azu and Wale Oladipo as the party’s national chairman and national secretary, respectively.

Over 3,050 delegates from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory are expected at the convention.

The delegates, according to the party’s spokesperson, Olisa Metuh, will be validating the candidacy of Mr. Jonathan on Thursday.

He had emerged the party’s sole presidential candidate in November, amid controversy over the withdrawal of his challengers, Jelil Tafawa Balewa, son of Nigeria’s former Prime Minister, and Akasoba Duke-Abiola, widow of the late Moshood Abiola.

Indeed, Mrs. Duke-Abiola is insisting she is still in the presidential race.

The president had been adopted by all the organs of the party, including its governors.

However, Mr. Jonathan’s adoption will still be ratified through the process of election in line with Section 87 of the Electoral Act to avoid litigations that could lead to the disqualification of the president from the impending contest.

On his part, Mr. Mu’azu, a former governor of Bauchi State, was appointed the PDP national chairman in January following the resignation of Bamanga Tukur from the position.

Mr. Oladipo was inaugurated in September last year.

The last presidential primary of the PDP held on January 14, 2011, at the same venue, Eagles Square.

In that election, Mr. Jonathan slugged it out with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Sarah Jubril.

The result announced by the Chief Returning Officer, Tunde Adeniran, a former education minister, showed that Mr. Jonathan polled 2,736 votes to beat Mr. Abubakar who got 805 votes while Mrs. Jubril got one vote.

Mr. Abubakar has since defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, on whose platform he is contesting the primary today in Lagos. He is running against four other aspirants.

The president, who went ahead to win the main presidential election, compensated Mrs. Jubril with an appointment as Senior Special Adviser to the President on Ethics and Values.

PREMIUM TIMES will bring you LIVE UPDATES of today’s convention at Eagles Square.

LIVEBLOG

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16.49

The convention has kicked off. The Chairman of the Convetion Planning Commitee, Bello Mohammed, a former acting national chairman of the PDP, has conlduded his welcome address. He wished the delegates successful convention.

16.49

President Goodluck Jonathan and wife, Patience, are already seated at the Eagles Square, Abuja, as the PDP presidential primary gets underway. Vice President Namadi Sambo and wife, Amina, are also seated. Other dignitaries include Senate President, David Mark, and PDP chairman, Adamu Mu’azu.

16.50

The Chairman of the Electoral Sub-Committee, Ken Nnamani addresses the convention on the guidelines to be used for the election. He said there is only one aspirant to the office of the president since two others voluntarily withdrew. He however said there candidates for some vacant party offices. He is now reading out the names of the returning officers for the 36 states.

16.50

The convention has kicked off. The Chairman of the Convetion Planning Commitee, Bello Mohammed, a former acting national chairman of the PDP, has conlduded his welcome address. He wished the delegates successful convention.

17.22

PDP delegates queuing for screening outside the Eagle Square in Abuja just before the convention started.

18.01

The PDP convention has been on break for almost an hour now with several artistes performing.

18.02

The MC announces that the convention will soon begin to receive goodwill messages from party leaders.

18.19

Voting has started in Abuja. Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda has been asked to lead President Goodluck Jonathan to the Bayelsa State stand to vote. Mr. Yuguda is the Returning Officer for Bayelsa State Both of them accompanied by his wife, Pateince, Governor Seriake Dickson and others are now on their way to Bayelsa stand

18.44

President Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo have concluded voting and have walked back to their seats at the VIP stand. Voting in progress.

19.43

Voting to ratify the appointments of the National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, the National Secretary, Wale Oladipo and the National Auditor has been concluded. The Electoral Committee headed by a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, is soritng out the votes and will announce the outcome soon.

20.14

On of the MCs asked leaders of the various state delegation to prevail on the delegates not to leave the venue of the convention because there are three set of voting.

He said the voting to ratify the party’s national chairman, national secretary and national auditor has just been held.

He said a motion for the amendment of the party’s constitution would be moved and after that there will be voting and then the election of the presidential candidate will be held.

The delegates are persuaded to stay back until these rounds of voting are concluded.

20.55

A member of the Election Sub-Committee, Tom Ikimi, is reading the result of the election to ratify the PDP national chairman, national secretary and national auditr, state by state.

21.22

Convention ratifies the appointment of Adaamu Mu’azu as the PDP national chairman and that of the national secretary, Wale Oladipo. Mr. Mu’azu was ratified with 2,672 votes. 11 votes were voided while there were 8 no votes. Ken Nnamani announced the overall result after Mr. Ikimi read the votes from each state, Counting of votes to ratify Adewale Adeyanju’s appointment as national auditor is in progress.

21.55

Members of the National Working Committee of the PDP whose appointments were ratified at the convention have taken the oath of office.

22.45

PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu, urges all unsuccessful aspirants to show understanding as Nigeria can only develop when all stakeholders remain united.

22.47

PDP amends its constitution with more than two-thirds of votes cast at National Convention, Chairman of Electoral Panel, Ken Nnamani, declares

23.56

01.25

President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted the party’s ticket. He also announced he will be re-running for the office with his “tested and loyal” Vice President, Namadi Sambo, as his running mate.

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Nigeria 2015: PDP Presidential primaries — LIVE UPDATES

Controversy Trails PDP Houses of Assembly Primary Nationwide

• Gov Orji’s son picks ticket for Umuahia Central

By James Sowole in Akure, Sheriff Balogun in Abeokuta and Daji Sani in Yola,

Olakiitan Victor in Ado Ekiti, Mohammed Aminu in Sokoto and Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia

MUAZU

The primary elections of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which held nationwide on Saturday to elect candidates who will carry the party’s flags in the 2015 State Houses of Assembly election, was fraught with controversies in many states.

While violence and irregularities characterised the congresses in most of the constituencies, only a few of the constituencies witnessed peaceful exercise.

The crisis rocking the Ondo State chapter of PDP continued at the primaries as the two factions of the party held parallel primary elections in some constituencies.

Although there was no presence of the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC ) to monitor the exercise in some places visited in the morning, each of the two factions claimed to have elected its own authentic  candidates for the election.

However, the case was different in some constituencies as THISDAY checks revealed that in Idanre, Ese Odo, Ondo East and West constituencies, the two factions harmonised and held a successful exercise.

In his reaction, the State Chairman of the party, Mr. Ebenezer Alabi, who denied the report of the absence of INEC at the venue of the primaries, said the officials came late due to some rearrangement that occurred between the representatives of the two factions at the INEC office .

In Ogun State, the primary election was so controversial that the National Working Committee had to cancel the exercise.

Chairman of the PDP Electoral Panel for House of Assembly, Mr. Akeem Animasaun, who was expected to conduct the primaries, was absent while a member of the committee, Muyiwa Bolaji, claimed ignorance of the cancellation.

The state’s party elders have disassociated themselves from the primaries and therefore called for nullification of the whole process. The PDP elders under the aegis of Concerned Elders, in a statement signed by Hon. Dave Salako, a former member of the House of Representatives, said the primaries were conducted by a group within the party in the state and the results should therefore be disregarded.

The elders, who contended that the conduct of the primaries was against the position of the leadership at the national level, demanded that the exercise be suspended forthwith until some knotty issues were resolved.

But the state chairman of the party, Engineer Bayo Dayo, said there was no iota of truth that the primaries was cancelled, insisting that it had the backing of the leadership of the party. He explained that the exercise was conducted under a peaceful atmosphere in all the 26 centres where the exercise was held.

Likewise, in Adamawa, which is battling insurgency occasioned  by Boko Haram, the emergence of two versions of delegates’ lists made a mess of the primary election.

On realising the existence of two delegates’ lists,  the state’s PDP officials  raised the alarm and vehemently rejected the list, which was alleged to have been doctored by the national secretariat of the party. The development caused the primaries to end in a deadlock.

A Yola High court presided over by the state Chief Judge, Justice Ishaya Banu, had earlier restrained the PDP national headquarters from conducting the primaries.

This was as a result of a motion ex-parte brought against the national leadership of the party by the state chairman of the party, Chief Joel Madaki, and others over alleged illegal dissolution of the state exco.

However, in spite of the brouhaha that trailed the outcome of the Delegates’ Congress conducted by the PDP a couple of weeks ago, the primaries conducted the party across the 26 State constituencies of Ekiti State were largely free and fair.

Also, the peaceful conduct of the primary election in Sokoto led the party to  adopt consensus candidates in 17 of the 23 local government areas.

The State Chairman of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim Milgoma, who disclosed the outcome of the primaries to newsmen in Sokoto, said the party conducted the primary elections in Dange/Shuni, Sokoto South, Sokoto North, Gwadabawa, Bodinga and Tambuwal local government areas and that it was devoid of violence.

Milgoma stated that the party provided a level-playing ground for all members to contest so as not to disenfranchise any person. He however, noted that adopting the consensus system had reduced intra-party squabbles.

Milgoma also stated that the consensus arrangement was being considered for the national assembly and gubernatorial primary elections of the party. No fewer than 1,156 delegates participated in the state assembly primary election.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the first son of Abia State Governor, Chinedum Orji, has picked the PDP ticket for Umuahia Central state constituency following the conclusion of the primary election held across the state.

His candidature was confirmed when the Returning Officer, Chief Anayo Nwakodo, declared the result of the primary election, which saw Orji polling 11 out of the 12 votes cast by delegates.

The other two contenders for the ticket, Adighibe Maduakolam and George Uwalaka, failed to score any vote as one vote was voided.

According to the Returning Officer, each of the three political wards was represented by three delegates while four delegates including Governor Theodore Orji were automatic delegates.

In Umuahia East state constituency the leader of Abia House of Assembly lost his bid for a fourth shot at the legislature as he lost the ticket to Chukwudi Apugo, who won with 12 votes.

Other results were still being expected from other constituencies across the state in the primary election, which started behind schedule.

Chairman of the Primaries Organising Committee for Abia, Chief Andrew Azubuike, attributed the late start to the delay in arrival of his team from Abuja, which he blamed on logistics problems.

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Controversy Trails PDP Houses of Assembly Primary Nationwide