Senator Stella Oduah has accused the National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by Sen. Ahmed Makarfi of imposition despite widespread claims that the party had repented and would eschew impunity in future political outings. The aggrieved Senator stated this at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
She lamented that barely one month after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Makarfi-led Committee, the party had slipped back to the culture of imposition and denigration of internal democracy.
The lawmaker who was one of the aspirants that sought to represent the party in the recently concluded Anambra state governorship primaries said she decided to boycott the exercise because the Committee did not follow due process. She said she was waiting patiently for the party to address the concerns she raised before deciding on her next line of action.
“I am still waiting for the party to address the concerns and the issues that I raised. The issues essentially boil down to the fact that the party’s Constitution clearly states how primary elections should be conducted. It stated the stages the exercise should go through and for each stage, it spelt out a check, and that check is to address the grievances that may come as a result of the process. Mine was very clear; I raised alert on the defects I noted. I wrote, complaining and insisted that failure to address those concerns, I wasn’t going to be part of that process,” Oduah said.
She expressed shock that the party was yet to learn from its past mistake, explaining that the situation was responsible for its woeful outing in 2015.
“If you have done something that made it impossible for people to exercise their rights, you disenfranchise them in the process and had a resultant effect, and you repeat it, obviously you haven’t learnt your lessons. I wish the party will revisit and address all the concerns. This is necessary because when people are aggrieved and you are not concerned about those grievances, you are saying two things: `go to hell’ and “there is nothing you can do about it,” she said.
