PDP Declares Ideato North Assembly Primary Election Inconclusive

– CITES OVER-VOTING

– AS COURT SET TO DISQUALIFY ASPIRANT, KANAYO NWANKWO OVER ALLEGED CERTIFICATE FORGERY.

By Emeka Onyenwe.

The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has declared inconclusive the primary election to choose the party’s flag bearer for Ideato North Constituency in the Imo State House of Assembly. The party, through its Electoral Panel, made this decision known to newsmen on Thursday in Owerri shortly after some irregularities were discovered while collation of votes was ongoing.

According to the panel, Ideato North, a constituency of fourteen electoral wards, was supposed to have a total number of forty-two votes for the House of Assembly primaries. And from the accreditation records, not more than forty-two persons were captured. The panel therefore wondered how the total number of votes cast rose to forty-four, which they pointed was an indication of a clear case of electoral fraud.

The issue was consequently referred to the Election Appeal Panel, so as to take a final decision on how to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, party stakeholders have continued to demand for the cancellation of the election and a conduct of a fresh exercise, which will be closely monitored to avoid a repeat of such electoral anomie.

In a similar development, a Federal High Court sitting in Owerri has been asked to disqualify one of the aspirants for the Ideato North House of Assembly seat on the platform of the PDP. Vide suit no: FHC/OW/077/2022, with Mr. Emeka Ekwonna as plaintiff and Kanayo Nwankwo, the People’s Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission as first to third defendants, the court has been prayed for interlocutory orders restraining the PDP from allowing Mr. Nwankwo to participate in the primaries and also restraining the INEC from recognizing the participation of Nwankwo in the primaries or accepting him as candidate of the party on the grounds of alleged certificate scandal.

Mr. Nwankwo, who is said to have graduated in 2008 from Lagos State University having studied Law is alleged by the plaintiff to not have possessed the minimum university entry requirement of a Pass in Mathematics in 2003 when his admission was purportedly secured in the varsity.

The plaintiff, who in his affidavit, described himself as a committed member of the PDP, is therefore worried that if a man does not possess the minimum university entry requirement, how could such a person be parading a certificate from the very same university? According to him, if the certificate is finally decided to be forged, which is a heavy crime that makes anyone convicted to be incompetent to hold public office, it them means that the PDP may end up not having a candidate or even losing the seat after election if Nwankwo is not expeditiously restrained by the court.