Stakeholders and statutory delegates to the local government chairmanship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party from Ikot-Ekpene local government area of Akwa Ibom State have rejected the election held on Monday.
The group led by Senator Emmanuel Ibokessien, withdrew from the process of election of a chairmanship candidate in the local government over alleged disenfranchisement.
The senator who is also the Board of Trustee (BOT) of the Peoples Democratic Party told a press conference that ad-hoc delegates elected on Saturday councillorship primaries to elect a chairmanship flag bearer for the party for the local government were disenfranchised.
He said the announcement on the AKBC Radio of different delegates for the election was “a complete disrespect to the peoples mandates”.
According to him the real delegates were not announced and were therefore disenfranchised from the process.
“In view of the infringement of the votes entrusted on the ad-hoc delegates by members of the Peoples Democratic Party from all the wards in Ikot-Ekpene, we the undersigned stakeholders and statutory delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ikot-Ekpene have withdrawn from the process of electing a chairmanship candidate for the party in Ikot-Ekpene for the forthcoming election due to the aforementioned irregularities and abnormalities,” he said.
He pointed out that delegates have “rejected in totality the purported election held at the Uyo township stadium and call for the cancellation to allow for a fair and due process to be followed to safeguard the winning of the forthcoming local election.”
