Posted by By Jacob Edi, Abuja on
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ah-Hoc Committee on the Ward congress has cancelled the result of the December 4 Ward congress held in Benue and Cross Rivers states, while the outcome of the congress in twenty states were upheld by the panel.
...NEC to decide Delta result
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ah-Hoc Committee on the Ward congress has cancelled the result of the December 4 Ward congress held in Benue and Cross Rivers states, while the outcome of the congress in twenty states were upheld by the panel.
The panel was set up last week by the National Executive Committee [NEC] of the party.
Briefing newsmen Friday afternoon on the recommendations of the panel, the Chairman, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, disclosed that the congress results of the two states were cancelled because of glaring irregularities in the conduct of the exercise in the states.
Fresh ward congresses are also to be held in Ankpa local government area of Kogi state, Egbeda local government of Oyo state and Shomolu local government of Lagos state.
The panel, he said, cleared the outcome of the results in Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Edo , Ebonyi, Enugu, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Ogun, Rivers and Yobe states after investigating petitions from the states and listening to witnesses that were invited to testify.
Babatope further declared that the panel could not take any specific position on the petitions from Delta state as the root of the the two results submitted from the state were traced to the national secretariat of the party where the party national leadership gave original result collation sheets to both the Delta state chairman of the party and the Chairman of the Election panel.
He said no petition was received from Anambra, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna , Kano , Nasarrawa, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara states, while the panel also recommended that the results of the ward congress in Bayelsa, Imo and Osun states are based "on agreed terms."
He however did not disclose what the agreed terms were.
Chief Babatope acknowledged that the congress has further polarised that party in some states, especially Katsina, and called for the reconciliation of party leaders in the state.
The Ad-Hoc committee chairman explained that the panel could not meet the Thursday deadline given to it by the National Chairman to submit its report as a result of the work overload.