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Violence, protests trail PDP, APC primaries in Benue, Taraba, Imo

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Violence, protests trail PDP, APC primaries in Benue, Taraba, Imo

Sad stories of protests and violence have continued to trail primaries of the major political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

While in Benue State 10 persons were injured and 20 vehicles damaged in a PDP primary Thursday night, in Taraba APC members on Friday took to the street to vehemently protest the emergence of Alhaji Sani Danladi as the party’s governorship candidate for the 2019 general elections.

In Imo State, six aspirants who participated in the cancelled APC governorship primaries, condemned the action of the Adams Oshiomhole’s led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, and called on him to respect the October 1 primary in the state conducted by Ahmed Gulak-led Committee, which returned Hope Uzodinma as winner.

In the Benue PDP South senatorial primary held at the Aper Aku Stadium in Makurdi, the state capital, thugs were said to have barricaded the entrance to the stadium.

However, the main issue that turned the primary into a bloody scene happened when some members of the party protested against the list of delegates from the Ohimini Local Government Area.

Some suspected thugs said to be supporters of some aspirants, reportedly started to haul stones at the delegates, forcing the security operatives to shoot into the air to disperse the crowd.

The shots into the air by the security operatives apparently excited some of the thugs, who themselves were also armed, and they responded with gunshots.

The development threw the event into violence as hoodlums destroyed some of the facilities at the stadium, injured over 10 persons and destroyed more than 20 cars, while delegates, as well as journalists, scampered for safety.

On what happened, the state Deputy Governor, Mr Benson Abounu, told newsmen at the scene of the event that what happened was regrettable. He expressed surprise that mere accreditation of delegates should become an issue among aspirants, resulting to delay of the exercise.

Meanwhile, in Taraba State, several aggrieved members of the APC marched through the streets of Jalingo, the state capital, protesting against the victory of Danladi at the governorship primary conducted in the state.

READ ALSO: APC PRIMARIES: Gov Yari leads protests against Oshiomhole

They called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and save the “soul of the APC” even as they alleged that no primary was conducted in the state, and that the chairman of the electoral panel sent to conduct the exercise, Senator Emmanuel Ocheja, connived and wrote the result in Danladi’s favour.

According to the leader of the eight returning officers, who conducted the exercise across the state, Prince Banire Abdulahi, the electoral panel chairman’s refusal to release the original copies of the result sheets to them makes the exercise a sham.

The chairman was said to have given them photocopies instead, which Abdulahi described as suspicious.

Six aspirants who were vying for the governorship ticket of the APC in Imo State condemned the cancellation of the primary which announced Senator Uzodinma as the winner of the party’s ticket.

The NWC of the party had condemned the October 1 election, describing it as fake. It had also dissolved the Ahmed Gulak-led Committee that conducted the primary, assuring to set up a new committee that will conduct fresh primaries in the state before the end of the week.

But in a statement the six aspirants jointly signed and read by one of them, Eze Madumere on Friday in Abuja, they vowed neither to participate in any fresh governorship primary nor accept the result that will emanate from the exercise.

“We the undersigned governorship aspirants of the APC Imo State chapter are constrained by the prevailing circumstances of the contrived controversy over the concluded governorship primary election held in our state on October 1, 2018 to state as follows:

“That we affirm that on October 1 the generality of party members trooped out and participated in the governorship primaries in the 305 electoral wards of the 27 local government areas of Imo State adopting the approved direct primaries method. There are available video evidence of the exercise from the 305 wards of the state,” the aspirants said.

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Passing a vote of confidence in the result released by Gulak, they said that they affirmed that Senator Uzodinma “won the governorship primary election” and that as “loyal party members and democrats we accept the result in good faith as a wish of the majority of our party members in Imo State.”

Further noting that they are aware of the desire of “Rochas Okorocha to sabotage the result” of the primary election to pave way for a repeat exercise that will produce his son-in-law Uche Nwosu as APC candidate in the state, the aspirants said that it will be in the best interest of the party to uphold the result of the October 1 primaries.

 

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