Ndubuisi Chibueze-Agbo, former Commissioner of Education in Ebonyi, has protested the alleged use of ‘fake’ delegates lists in the conduct of the APC primaries in the state.
Chibueze-Agbo, a House of Representatives aspirant for Ohaukwu and Ebonyi local government areas federal constituency in the 2019 elections protested via a petition written to the National chairman of the party, Mr Adams Oshiomhole dated October 17.
A copy of the petition was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abakaliki on Thursday.
The APC chieftain criticised the electoral officials sent to Ebonyi to conduct the party’s primaries for compromising the integrity and outcome of the exercise.
Mr Chibueze-Agbo alleged that the electoral committees empowered to conduct the various primary elections in Ebonyi ‘imported’ lists containing names of fake party executives and delegates which were unknown to the party.
He further alleged that the leaders of the party in the state were excluded, neglected, disrespected and were not consulted during the party primaries.
“Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology and former Ebonyi Governor, Chief Martin Elechi were excluded from actively participating in the exercise.
“That the party should carry out its activities in the state without their inputs or knowledge is to say the least an aberration.
“None of these great leaders were allowed to vote nor contribute to the selection of those that will represent them in their constituencies,” Mr Chibueze-Agbo said.
The former commissioner noted that the faulty party primaries had caused mayhem and havoc to the party in Ebonyi and called on the national chairman to take urgent steps to redress the anomalies
The petition reads in part: “I write as a bonafide and ardent supporter and promoter of our party, APC in Ebonyi.
“I have suffered personal losses more than any individual in the state, if not in Nigeria as a whole as three of my educational institutions have been closed down for over a year and property thereto revoked by the state government in my proactive bid to build our party.
“However, the apparent display of impunity, illegality and wanton departure from all known laid down guidelines of APC in the purported primary elections is a thing of regret, disbelief and characteristically anomalous.
“This is unacceptable by the supporters of our party in the state who are itching for a positive leadership change in Ebonyi and I urgently beg for your quick and timely intervention to safe our great party from collapse”.
Mr Chibueze-Agbo, who lamented the imposition of fake delegate’s lists on the party, also regretted the alleged killings of over seven members of the party at Onueke, Ezza South local government area during the party’s national assembly primary election held in the area.
“It is very absurd that the electoral committee which had the mandate to conduct our primary elections was powered with fake and contentious executive/delegate lists.
“These lists were different both in character and substance from that known and approved by the APC national secretariat approved as working and operational documents for the exercise.
“The use of the fake lists against the original lists made mess of the entire exercise as our genuine executives/delegates were disenfranchised, while those allowed to vote were not known to our party here in the state.
“I am also aware that some aspirants of our party have petitioned your office as a result of this action. Our party is in a state of quagmire,” he said.
He added: “For the first time in Ebonyi lives were lost in the conduct of primary elections.
“This is just intra party crises. It is better imagined than experienced as about seven or more persons were killed and many maimed in Onueke, Ezza South Local Government area in the name of APC primary election.
“This is not the change we envisaged; this is totally unacceptable, if party politics has gotten to a level where people are slaughtered like chickens, then the change we are preaching has a very big question mark.
“This is a very sad disappointing development”.
He called for cancellation of the Ebonyi primary elections, urging the national chairman to order for fresh elections with authentic executive and delegates lists.
NAN
