The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has voided the 3-man Ward Adhoc Delegates Congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) conducted on April 30, 2022 in all the 305 Wards in the State.
In an eight-page report on the Imo State PDP 3-man Ward Delegate Congress signed by the Imo Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Prof. Francis Ezeonu, and eight others, it listed the observations of the Commission in each of the 27 local government areas in the State, and concluded that the PDP Imo State Congress will not be said to have substantially complied with the relevant laws and guidelines guiding the conduct of ward congress for the election of delegates.
While some party officials in some of the Local Government Areas claimed to have arrived at a consensus or affirmation or harmonisation, the Commission rejected the claims on the basis that the process adopted by the party violated the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The report states that, “It is pertinent to state that consensus/affirmation is one of the methods approved for the selection of candidates or delegates.
“However, even when parties have agreed to adopt consensus method, proper Congresses should be held to affirm the chosen candidates or delegates in a free, fair and credible process. This was observed in the breach in this instance.”
The report also confirmed earlier reports that there were no original result sheets brought to the Congress venues and also corroborated that the result sheets for Ideato North and Ideato South LGAs were missing and were not seen by any person and also were not among the 25 result sheets deposited with the State Command of the DSS by the PDP.
“In almost all the instances the monitors claimed that no original result was brought to the venues. The absence of materials including the sensitive ones (result sheets) as reported by all the electoral officers in all the ward venues where the congress was to hold cast a lot of doubts on the exercise,” the report concluded.
By this development, the PDP can only conduct its primary elections in the State for the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate with the list of Statutory Delegates as any primary election conducted with any list of the 3-man adhoc delegates is bound to be nullified and the party at the risk of not having any candidate at all in the State.
PDP leaders have hailed the report from INEC just as there was jubilation at the party Secretariat that the plot by the National Secretary of the party to smuggle in a doctored list of 3-man delegates has effectively failed.
The Ideato leaders said that the INEC report was a justice served in time as it had nullified all the illegal actions which led to the stealing of the result sheets for the two LGAs.