A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State, Dr. Emmanuel Agbo, has alleged plans by President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to decimate the opposition party, ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The former Benue State PDP chairman and aspirant for the position of the Deputy National Secretary in the botched PDP national convention warned that democracy was under threat.
Agbo spoke with reporters in Abuja,the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to substitute the name of the PDP candidate in the Ondo State governorship election, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) with that of Chief Jimoh Ibrahim. Jegede belongs to the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction, while Ibrahim is a member of the faction, led byAli Modu Sheriff.
According to INEC, Ibrahim was listed as the candidate, following the ruling by Justice Okon Abang of Federal High Court, Abuja that the primary which produced him was the legal shadow poll, although it was held at Ibadan, Oyo State caspital, and it was not witnessed by INEC officials.
Agbo said the electoral commission decided to list Ibrahim as candidate because it was teleguided by those forces planning to cripple the PDP.
He described the INEC’s decision was dubious and illogical, stressing that no superior court has ruled against an High Court verdict it has relied upon to acknowledge the Makarfi’s faction.
His words: “Without mincing words, what is happening about the PDP national leadership is either being masterminded or encouraged or being promoted by the APC government of today. Recent developments further confirm my convictions. They went all out, not just to rig, but to forcefully deny the people of Edo their rightful choice in the most uncelebrated and democratically manipulated election.
“There is no gainsaying that the profile in terms rating and standing of the present APC government with the masses of Nigeria has terribly nosedived. Thinking ahead of 2019, they think that the only option left for them is to decimate the PDP as much as possible before 2019.”
On the recent inauguration of a parallel executive committee in Benue State by PDP members loyal to Sheriff, said: “It is laughable because the state leadership of our political party is a product of congresses. Leadership at either the wards, local governments, the senatorial districts or states and even at the zonal level, that is the six zones of the country, emerges as a result of congresses.
“How the composition of the congresses is formed are outlined unambiguously in our constitution. To arrive at a congress, the party is mandatorily supposed to give 21 working days notice to the INEC.
“The INEC follows up by deploying their staff to monitor the conduct of those congresses. I was the last state chairman of the PDP in Benue; a member of NEC under Sheriff. The NEC gave Sheriff the approval to write to the INEC for our congresses. Under Sheriff, those congresses held in the wards, local governments, states and at the zones and delegates therefrom now went to Port Harcourt.
“What that means is that at all levels lower than the national level, congresses were entered into, conducted peacefully under the supervision of INEC as allowed by our law and produced leadership at those levels. This was under the then leadership of Sheriff before we went to Portharcourt.
“How will anybody now come and start raising parallel congresses at levels that congresses took place and produced leadership without any iota of problem. So, as far as we are concerned, those who claimed to have put in place a parallel exco for PDP in Benue State did nothing. There is only one PDP in Benue State and there’s no division.”
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