New Kwara PDP exco inaugurated as aggrieved contestants protest
Newly elected state working committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara has been inaugurated.
The inauguration took place at the party’s secretariat even as some aggrieved members of the party kicked against the outcome of the congress.
Senator Barnabas Gemade who chaired the five-man committee which superintended the election had declared Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo as the new chairman of the party.
He polled 375 votes to defeat his closest rival, Bode Ojomu who got 225 votes while another contestant, Maryam Al-Hassan came a distant third with 19 votes.
No sooner than the results of the congress were declared that a group within the party known as the Freedom Group rejected the result because of what it called “glaring irregularities”.
The group in a statement by Chief Lanre Ogundeji said, “After a preliminary assessment of the Congress and its outcome, the group said the outcome was full of discrepancies, especially on the variance between the number of delegates accredited and the number of votes recorded for the contestants”.
According to the group, “Whereas more than 800 delegates were accredited, just about 550 votes were recorded for all candidates who contested the chairmanship seat”.
The aggrieved contestants have however petitioned the congress appeal committee and the national secretariat of PDP, alleging irregularities in the conduct of the primary.
The petition jointly signed by six contestants, two from each of the three Senatorial districts, also accused the out-gone interim chairman, Hon. Solomon Edoja of “selling and allocating offices to the highest bidders”.
“Mr. Solomon Edoja had his plan and as a matter of fact he made sure that the congress was a sham. He did not advertise the list of contestants. The names of contestants were not even known to the Delegates as the names of who they were to vote for were not known to them”, the petition added.
However in a telephone chat with Daily Trust, Edoja said there was no iota of truth in the allegations, insisting the election was “clean, thorough, painstaking and the most democratic election in the world”.
He said those making the allegations are not PDP members because according to him, the congress was a replica of a national convention.