Ebonyi Guber: Anyichuks Emerges Winner Of PDP Primaries,As Four Candidates Declined Participation

--Accuses Processes Of Irregularities By Nwogha Ndubuisi, Abakaliki

Dr Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii(Anyichuks) has been declared winner of the Ebonyi gubernatorial election of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) even as four aspirants withdrawn from Participating from the exercise on alleged irregularities that occured during the election. Odii polled 349 votes to defeat his closest rival, Chris Usulor who scored 9 votes in the gubernatorial primary election held at the party Secretariat Along Abakaliki-Enugu Expressway, Abakaliki on Sunday. He was declared the winner of the exercise by the Chairman of the electoral committee, Mr Lekan Olarotimi for having scored the highest votes.

Earlier, four Ebonyi Governorship aspirants withdrawn from the race ahead of party primaries over alleged impunity that characterized the exercise.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, the aspirants fingered irregularities among other electioneering malpractices 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 Guber 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 event observed that the exercise continued with Mr Ifeanyichukwu Odi,(Anyichuks) who stood alone for the exercise. Also gathered was that in what looked like another faction of PDP led by Hon Toochukwu Okorie after stakeholders meeting at Salt Lake Hotel, belonging to one of the aspirant announced cancelation of their plan to had primaries at the venue. Meanwhile, Dr Odii in his acceptance speech appreciated the state and national leadership of the party for founding him worthy to stand for the election and assured the people of good governance. The event was followed by official handing over of the party's flag to the gubernatorial Candidate by the state party chairman, Barr Silas Onu.