Four aspirants who purchased the nomination forms for the governorship primaries of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have asked the party to substitute the party’s candidate, Oseloka Obaze for one of them.
In a letter dated September 10 and addressed to the Governor of Enugu State Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the aggrieved candidates some of whom boycotted the election insisted that Obaze was not qualified to be an aspirant of the party in the first place.
The letter which was also copied to the Chairman, PDP National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi was signed by the four aspirants which include: Senator Stella Oduah, former Minister of State for Transportation, John Emeka; Chairman Capital Oil, Ifeanyi Ubah as well as Alex Obiogbolu.
Recall that the aspirants had alleged irregularities during the delegates’ conference prompting some of the aspirants to boycott the primary election.
The aspirants in the letter insisted that Obaze will not receive their support if the party fails to address their grievances.
“The national leadership of our party should consider and nominate another aspirant as governorship candidate amongst the underlisted who were cleared and are capable of flying the party’s flag: Prince John Emeka, Dr Alex Obiogbolu, Senator Stella Oduah, Chief Ifeanyi Ubah.
“The nomination of Mr. Oseloka Obaze who was not qualified to contest the election shall not receive our support,” the letter seen by BusinessDay, reads in part.
All the four aggrieved aspirants signed the correspondence titled: ‘Re: Invitation to Meeting Scheduled for September 11’.
Ugwuanyi who is also PDP member had earlier called the quartet for a peace meeting for September 11 at Government House Enugu to resolve the crisis.
In another submission to Makarfi, the aspirants insisted that the August 28 primary that produced Obaze was marred with irregularities, adding that his emergence was unconstitutional.
The letter dated September 13 titled: ‘Aspirants’ submission on issues surrounding the 2017 Anambra PDP Primary Election’ states in part: “It is worthy to state that Oseloka Obaze was not qualified ab initio to contest for the Governorship Primary election of the PDP.
“He was not qualified to have been nominated to contest the gubernatorial primary as he has not met with provisions of article 50 (4) and (5) of the Party constitution and Part 3 section 2 (j) of the electoral guideline which stipulated that: ‘An aspirant to the gubernatorial primary election shall not be qualified to be nominated or to contest the primary election, if he/she: (I) is not a member at the POP for at least two years preceding the election except if waived by the appropriate Executive of the Party.
“The purported waiver granted to Obaze after the nomination was never ratified in accordance with the party constitution”.
The governorship election is billed for November 18, 2017.
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