WAS THERE A RE-RUN
HOUSE OF REPS PDP PRIMARY IN BAYELSA?
It is
still a surprise to the unsuspecting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) delegates
in the Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency, of Bayelsa State, that there was
a purported re-run primary election in the federal constituency on January 28,
2011, long after the party primaries was conducted and result submitted to the
National headquarters of the party in Abuja by the party election panel that
conducted the January 6th and 7th, National Assemblies
party primaries in the state.
Oh!
Nigerians when will the satanic activities and desperate ambitions of our
politicians come to an end.
These are
question staring us in the face as the nation and the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC)) is attempting to get things right, in the present
democratic dispensation.
The
administration of President Yar’Adua/Goodluck Jonathan started on a good note.
It is generally believed that the continuation of the administration
personified in President Jonathan, respects and still maintains the rule of law
as an enviable policy in the running of the affairs of the nation.
President
Goodluck Jonathan has consistently insisted at many for not to interfere in the
outcome of elections be it at party levels or at the general elections.
The President
in far away Turkey, had reiterated his avowed commitment to the conduct of free
and fair elections, he ha said that he will bow out gallantly if he loses at
the April presidential general election. As an exemplary leader he submitted
himself to the rigours of the party presidential primaries. Why then would some
of our Federal lawmakers se themselves as being above the law and would not
submit themselves to the scrutiny of party primaries.
The latest
happenings and in particular the purported directives for an alleged re-run
election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency
as claimed by Honourable Seriaki Dickson, has continue to bother the minds of
thousands of admires of the present administration strict adherence to the rule
of law.
To our
thinking the attempt by Honourable Seriaki Dickson, to parade himself as the
president’s anointed candidate in the Sagbama/Ekeremor Constituency long after
the party primaries was conducted and returns made to the national headquarters
of the party, is a calculated attempt to blackmail the President of the Federal
Republic and lower his estimation in the minds of the millions of Nigerian who
admires his virtue as a straight forward man.
The Acting
National Chairman of the Party and other members of the National Working
Committed are all highly respectable men and woman with very enviable
integrity.
It is
absurd for an individual or group of persons to rubbish their hard earned
reputations by name dropping. Their integrity is at stake, they should be
conscious of the wind of change in the party and the recharged political
environment in the country.
The
question still remains, was there any re-run party primaries in the
Sagbama/Ekeremor federal constituency, even when the January 6th,
party primaries was adjudged to be free and fair with Honourable Ofoni Williams
being return by the party election panel as the clear winner of the generally
accepted party primaries as was widely reported in almost all the national
dallies in the country the next day.
The
Independent Electoral Commission, the institution responsible for overseeing
the conduct of elections in the country, had repeatedly informed all the
political parties that any party primaries conducted beyond January 15th,
2011 remains null and void. Whence then did the purported re-run party
primaries solely conducted by Honourable Seriaki Dickson, a serving member of
the Federal House of Representative on January 28, 29011 without the
supervision of any constituted authority became valid.
We begin
to wonder how in the face of the glaring validity of the Ofoni Williams victory
at the January 6th party primaries, the national headquarters of the party
would allegedly handover the return certificate to Honourable Dickson who
single handedly conducted a re-run primary for himself without the
participation of INECS, the state party executive and the delegates from the
Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal constituency. We still asked to know who authorized
such illegality.
We are
still shocked by the fact that PDP the biggest party in the sub-Saharan Africa
will allow this kind of lawlessness perpetrated by an individual whose ambition
seems to override the interest of the majority of the party delegates of the
Federal Constituency who came out in their numbers to exercise their civil
obligations at the January 6th party primary that duly elected Hnourable Ofoni
Williams as the party’s candidate for the Sagbam/Ekeremor Federal Constituency
for the April general election.
The
implication of this act and the ploy to forced the choice of honourable Seriake
Dickson on the teeming party delegates participated in the January 6th,
Primaries will certainly present President Goodluck Jonathan and the party in
bad light since Honourable Dickson is parading the goodwill of Mr. President as
the strength of the acceptance of his candidature by the national leadership of
the party even when the lost at the party primaries.
Is it that
all that had been said by the president concerning Professor Atahiru Jega
conduct of a credible election be taken for granted.
If the observed
anomaly is being allowed, the strong institutions which the president is
attempting to build would have been reduced to nothing and the credibility of
INEC’ as represented by Professor Atahiru Jega would have collapse.
It is on
this note that we will want to plead with the leadership of the ruling party to
check the excesses of members of the party who tends to present the party as
lawless.
It is
lamentable that most of the persons in the party responsible for the wide
spread reports of upturns of party primaries are either serving members of the
National Assembly, state legislators, governorship aspirants and other
aspirants who lost our in the party primaries.
It should
be noted here that their defeat in the primaries are clear statements made by
their constituencies back home. The mandate of the electorate cannot be wished
away by the egoism, avarice and frivolous claims by these desperate
politicians. The leadership of the party cannot justify the rationale behind
the re-run primaries with particular reference to the Sagbama/Ekeremor federal
Constituency.
It is high
time we nurture strong institutions rather than powerful individuals as well as
eliminate undemocratic behaviours in our polity and governance.
We shame
this force of lawlessness and the act of unauthorized re-run primaries shrewd
in secrecy in the Sagbama/Ekeremor federal Constituency. These activities
stands condemned, it is a disrespect to the guiding principles of the PDP.
INEC
should not be misled by undemocratic elements in our political parties, it is
only a credible INEC that command the respect of parties that will deliver the
goods in the general elections.
A single
person or a few individual cannotarm-twist the electoral body to do it biddings
by dropping the Presidents name as the strength of his desired disposition.
We are
appealing to INEC to note here that ever since the news of the purported
primaries surfaced in the Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency, hundreds of
the actual delegates who participated in the January 6th, party primaries in
Bayelsa West, had persistently filed protest to the Acting National Chairman of
the party, but in deviance and surprisingly too some elements at the party
headquarters have refused to acknowledged any such protest letter in an attempt
to cover up the unjustifiable upturn of actual winners of the primary having
illegally substituted impostors as party flag bearers.
President
Goodluck Jonathan and INEC have set out and committed to do the right things,
but some desperate party members still believe in “Carry go”. That era is gone
and should e put behind us. INEC should only recognized result of party
primaries conducted before January 15, as it has stated. It is high time our
politicians accept defeat in good fate, we should learn not to be bad losers.
Other smaller African countries cannot be touch bearers for us in election
matters, we should be the leading examples.
Mr. Ebiowei Amaitari
For
Concern Democrats
Bayelsa State
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