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Press Release:
KOGI EAST DELEGATES WARN PDP AGAINST IMPOSING SENATOR ATAI AIDOKO AS ITS SENATORIAL CANDIDATE FOR KOGI EAST
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sold and collected money for Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms from the Aspirants. It screened the Aspirants and cleared them for the Primary Election. It set and published the date of 2nd October 2018 for the Primary for Kogi East. On 2nd October 2018, all the Aspirants, their Agents and the delegates assembled at the venue of the Primary at 0800 and waited till 12.45 am. There were no Electoral officials or materials. To the greatest shock of everybody, the PDP Kogi State headquarters informed us that the NWC had issued a written instruction to the Kogi Electoral Committee to affirm Senator Attai Aidoko, as the automatic candidate for Kogi East. The Primary for Kogi East never took place, it was stalled.
However, after Senator Aidoko put a spurious claim on the African Independent Television (AIT) that he had won the non-existent Primary, the Returning Officer appointed for that Primary, Hon Samuel Abenemi, who is also the Kogi State PDP Deputy Chairman and Alhaji Faruk Yahaya, the Kogi State PDP Secretary, went on the air to debunk any claim of any Primary and advised the NWC to set a new date for a proper Primary.
In addition, the Appeal Panel headed by Princess Bolanle stated clearly in their report to the NWC that no PDP Senatorial Primary took place in Kogi East and recommended to the NWC to set a new date for the Primary which the PDP has up till now refused to do.
If the PDP had an MOU with r-APC to return Senator Dino Melaye, that MOU did not cover Senator Attai Aidoko who is a PDP Senator. In the eyes of the law, Senator Aidoko is not even the Senator representing Kogi East and he is seating there illegally as a subsisting Court judgement had ordered him to stop parading himself as a Senator representing Kogi East and vacate the Seat.
If the PDP fails to conduct a proper Primary after selling the Forms, screened and cleared the Aspirants; after publishing the date for the Primary which it never cancelled and the Aspirants mobilised us to the Venue and satisfying the Party’s Internal Resolution Mechanism processes, as stipulated by appealing to the Electoral Appeal Panel, which recommended to the NWC to set a new date for the Primary and which the NWC failed to heed, then aspirants will have no other option than to seek redress in a Court of Law with competent jurisdiction to restrain the PDP from submitting Senator Aidoko’s name to INEC as its candidate for Kogi East and INEC from accepting Senator Aidoko’s name.
The whole of Kogi East which accounts for 70% of PDP votes from Kogi has vowed to resist this imposition and impunity and teach the PDP the same bitter lesson that cost the PDP a sitting Governor in 2015. The PDP has no moral justification for criticising INEC and other Political Parties if it also indulges in the worst form of imposition and impunity. The PDP is therefore requested to conduct this Primary latest 07 October 2018 to avoid numerous embarrassing legal actions.
Signed:
Hon. Enemaku S. O.
For: All PDP Delegates in Kogi East
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