From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri

The Imo state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Engr Charles Ugwu has said the party’s ward ward congresses held last Saturday was inconclusive.

He said that the election panel who had come from the National Secretariat Abuja had come with incomplete result sheets and that the result sheets for Ideato North /South were missing.

The state Chairman noted that inexplicable disappearance of the result sheets consequently raised a very serious question about the integrity of the team from the National Secretariat and indicated that the process was already obviously compromised.

Ugwu who stated this at a press conference yesterday said that the ad – hoc ward congresses was inconclusive as the result sheets were incomplete.

Said He: “We invited you today to keep you abreast of the progress made so far with regard to the conduct of our Ward Congress to elect the three ad hoc delegates which began on Saturday . This is in keeping with our tradition of openness, public accountability and inviolable internal democratic principle.

Continuing , “In line with the provisions of our Party Constitution and Guidelines for the conduct of primaries, the PDP in Imo State, yesterday, April 30th, 2022 prepared and mobilized our members for congresses at the 305 electoral Wards of the State. What, however, is to be noted is that the five-man Electoral Panel for the Ward Congress, sent by the PDP National Secretariat to conduct the exercise did not come with the complete result sheets. Meanwhile, the exercise had almost been concluded in most wards where the option of consensus or harmonization was reached.

It is curious to note, that out the twenty-seven Local Government Areas, result sheets displayed by the Panel were twenty-five – for 25 LGAs. While those of Ideato North and Ideato South could not be found and there was no explanation as to their disappearance.

Adding , “This inexplicable disappearance of the result sheets consequently raised a very serious question about the integrity of the team from our National Secretariat and indicated that the process was already obviously compromised.

This necessitated the critical stakeholders to resolve to allow the Department of State Services (DSS) in Owerri to take custody of the results since the exercise could not proceed as planned with incomplete result sheets.

However, when we got to the DSS office today and duly retrieved the result sheets, we were embarrassed that contrary to our earlier decision, the Electoral Panel Members refused to bring the materials to the State Party Secretariat. They instead planned to jet out to Abuja with the result sheets. This sinister plot was resisted by officers and members of Imo State PDP, who once again called for the intervention of the DSS, which in its magnanimity accepted to continue keeping the result sheets in its custody.

So, till this moment, the DSS is still with the result sheets for the twenty-five Local Government Areas while the missing two have not yet been found. The exercise therefore remains inconclusive.”

We wish to urge the National Working Committee of our Party to step in and address this challenge, so as to restore confidence in the internal democratic processes of our party. ”