Ebonyi 2023: Ogbaga, Ezeh,2 Others Boycott PDP Governorship Primaries Over Alleged Irregularities

--As exercise continues with Anyichuks By Nwogha Ndubuisi, Abakaliki

Four Ebonyi Governorship aspirants on Sunday boycotted from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ebonyi State race during the party primaries over alleged impunity that characterized the exercise. Among them are: Hon Sylvester Ogbaga, member representing Abakaliki/Izzi federal constituency, Dr Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh, (Immaculate) business mogul,Dr Augustine Nwazunku and Hon. Chukwuma Nwazunku, former EBOSACA Secretary and member representing Ebonyi/Ishielu federal constituency respectively.

Speaking with journalists at the party secretariat along Abakaliki-Enugu Expressway, aspirants fingered irregularities among others to had marred the exercise. According to Hon Ogbaga, described the primary elections processes as charade as such cannot participate in the primary election. "I have looked at the processes that would produce the Governorship Candidate beginning from accreditation format and it is very faulty; where the secretariat is littered with crowd of people that cannot be identified and the mode of entry has no direction as anybody that answers any name goes into the hall for the election. "For these reasons, you don't see a process that's not transparent and you go into the election, I personally, Hon. Sylvester Ogbaga cannot start a thing that will produce shame; it is a show of shame and personalized. "And for these reasons, I wouldn't stand for the election and will leave with my people. "The irregularities are open and I cannot stand on election like this because this isn't first election I am standing. Chief Ogbaga when asked his next step of action said that he would consult with his supporters before knowing what to do.

Another aspirant, Dr Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh, (Immaculate) a business mogul, hinted that the situation surrounding the exercise did not follow the directives of the party as unknown faces take over the delegates position away from recognized party recognized procedures. "What has been happening in our party is an unfortunate situation, coming from a private sector where things are usually organize and things are done with due process. "I came into the election to make a difference and I have campaign vigorously. I did all that I ought to do from campaigns to all that required of me, but what I see here is a charade. "There's no delegates list, secondly, there's no result sheets and thirdly, no officials from Abuja, but what we saw and hear are people wearing tags who they introduced as secretaries and when I asked of the panel chairman, there's none. "So, how can we identity them, they have no identity, which means that what they did was to import few people from somewhere and and design their tags and start to do the election.

"Meanwhile, the notification of election received that was duly signed by the national chairman and Secretary indicated sequences of the elections which we suppose to do House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate today while Guber suppose to be the next day, suddenly, the state chairman on his own Accord without consultation from the aspirants decided to run the entire elections one day. " You can see, everywhere is dark and we have over four thousand people here which we don't know who is a delegates and that's a clear sign that the process is designed to achieve an evil result and I will not be part of that. "Secondly, midway into the election, a circular started flying around and we do not know and need to be verified. "Again, during the period of accreditation, people were seen trouping into the hall with no verification and this is murder of democracy. "I believe that what's going on there is a charade and for me, I am going to wait for the day PDP will give us date for primaries except PDP national wish to kill the party in Ebonyi state. "The result is predetermined and the chairman should be ashame of himself. Also, Hon Chukwuma Nwazunku, hinted that his withdrawal from the race was due to abnormalies that surrounds the primary exercise. He pointed out that the election is marred with irregularities and would no longer participate in the election. According to him," I am not happy at all with what is happening here and I am not going to stand on this type of election. "You can bear me witness with what is happening here and that's a show of shame, where people will be conducting an election and they cannot allow even you as an aspirant to talk to your observers or delegates and you will be treated as if you are not a human being. "So, for me I believe that such exercise is worth going into.

On his part, another gubernatorial aspirant, Dr Nwazunku Augustine, former Ebonyi State Secretary Action Control of Aids, EBOSACA, described the exercise as a busy market with no identity as no delegate List was provided. He added, "As you look around, this place is more or less like a very busy market where you don't know who is who, since there's no display of delegates list and you don't know who-is-who, all you say is this person and you see somebody matching to where he's directed. "I don't think that an aborted pregnancy need to go to delivery room again because from the beginning this election is more of charades. Our reporter who is at the venue of the exercise observed that the exercise continued with Mr Ifeanyichukwu Odi,(Anyichuks) who is standing alone in the exercise as at the press time.