Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa State who participated in the last primaries for the party’s House of Assembly and other tickets but failed in their bids have teamed up to vent their grievances.
Blaming their failure on the party in the state, they accuse the leaders of high-handedness against some aspirants and imposition of favoured aspirants at the expense of others.
The aggrieved aspirants, 107 in number, said in a statement obtained Tuesday that imposition marred the party’s last primary elections.
The aspirants, rising under the aegis of the Roundtable of House of Assembly Aggrieved Aspirants in the PDP, said in the statement signed by the convener, Barr Swuthirba Joel from the Guyuk constituency, that they reached the decision to draw the attention of the party under the leadership of Rt Hon Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the state governor.
The group alleged that no delegates elections were conducted in Adamawa State and as such the party could not make available lists of delegates to all aspirants as stated in the party’s constitution.
They added that hiding under that irregularity, “the delegate’s lists to be used for the primary elections were hijacked.”
The group charged further that a high level of intimidation to vote preferred candidates of the state leadership was evident during the conduct of the primary elections.
They further alleged “High handedness to aspirants who were ordered to step down for some other aspirants. Forceful imposition and return of nonperforming representatives in the House of Assembly, House of Representatives, and the Senate.”
They emphasised that the primaries were marked by a high-level display of autocratic tendencies instead of a democratic process.
“And female aspirants were not given 35% affirmative slots, or at least being allowed to contest for the primary elections but rather were asked to step down for other preferred candidates after they picked nomination forms,” the aggrieved aspirants said.
They insisted that the last primaries were a blatant show of power and disenfranchisement of their aspirations.
They said however that they only resolved to align as a team to find means of addressing the injustice done to them but are not planning to leave the PDP.
“We the aggrieved aspirants of the group shall remain in the party as party men and stakeholders. We shall continue to organize, discourse the best way forward for our common aspirations,” the group stated.
