…Halts Anyanwu’s resumption as Nal’ Sec.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has said last Saturday’s off-cycle election in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States further confirmed Nigerians’ lack of confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Acting National Chairman of the party, Ambassador Umar Damagun, said the election was characterised by violence, intimidation and high-handedness.
Damagun, however, said the party has suspended the reported resumption of Senator Samuel Anyanwu as PDP National Secretary until the conflicting court orders relating to the national secretaryship are resolved.
New Telegraph had earlier reported that Anyanwu arrived at the PDP national secretariat on Tuesday, and in a short video posted by the PDP media unit, was seen appreciating workers for their support during his governorship campaign.
But Damagun at a press conference after the National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, explained that since there were conflicting court orders, the party decided to urge the two sides to stand down.
He discloses that the Deputy National Secretary Setoji Kosheodo, who has been acting since Anyanwu was on campaign, was told “to continue to act as secretary pending the time we will resolve all the issues.
“The conflicting court orders and resolutions of the South East, so there is no conflict and we are together and thinking together on this issue.”
The acting National Chairman alleged that voters were disenfranchised “due to the complicity of some of the agencies that were to help to have a very fair election but they completely compromised.
“This election is worse than even the one we had earlier.”
He said there was an attempt to rob the party of Bayelsa State “but because we have a structure. But in Imo and Kogi, they had a field day. If you have an election, you are supposed to allow people to express their choice.”
Damagun said this was not what Nigerians bargained for and expressed fears that there may be no election in this country if the trend continued.
He advised those who felt cheated in the election to pursue their grievance through the lawful means “even though we have doubts that even the lawful means is also a sad story. In a country where justice is not dispensed, then anarchy is imminent.”
