Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has called on the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to cancel the House of Assembly and House of Representatives primaries slated for Sunday in Lagos.
Chairman of the party, Mr Philips Aivoji, made the call on Sunday at a news conference alongside other state executive members, and governorship aspirants, including Dr Ade Dosunmu, Engr. Adedeji Doherty, Mr Jimi Jamal and Gbadebo Rhodes- Vivour (DACOVA); and party leaders in Ikeja said that the ad hoc delegates list brought by the electoral committee for both primaries had been compromised.
The primaries, which were supposed to have commenced in different centres in the state, did not take place as party members were seen stranded while waiting for the arrival of officials in charge of the exercise.
“The entire State Executive Committee of the Lagos State PDP, and five of the six gubernatorial aspirants, reject in its entirety the Ad-Hoc delegate list brought by the electoral committee to Lagos State for the purpose of conducting the State House of Assembly and House of Representatives elections in Lagos State.
“We are all shocked to see that the list does not reflect the authentic elected Ad-Hoc delegates as conducted by the organs of the party at the ward level and Supervised by the DSS and INEC.
“It is imperative to state that copies of the Ad-Hoc list that emanated from the state and were submitted to INEC are completely different from the one brought by the committee for the purpose of the exercise.
We realised that contrary to the provision of our great party and the electoral guidelines of the party, the election committee came to the state with a list of venues and already chosen electoral officers,” Aivoji stated.
Aivoji, who said the party in the state had the responsibility for partaking in the exercise, declared the approach by the electoral committee as totally unacceptable.
This was just as he disclosed that the Committee Chairman and the Secretary of the Electoral Committee meant to conduct the State House of Assembly Primary election had not reported to the State Chairman or State Organ of the party.
“Up till this moment, we cannot reach out to the committee chairman and secretary, their telephones have either been switched off or unreachable.
“As law-abiding members of our great party, we collectively reject this list and we cannot guarantee, free, fair and credible party primaries that we have sworn to conduct.”