PDP will accommodate aggrieved assembly members – Emmanuel

Ini Billie, Uyo

The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel has said the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will accommodate members aggrieved during the State Assembly and House of Representatives primaries conducted on Sunday.

Some aggrieved members who opposed the outcome of April 30, 2022 ad hoc delegates election boycotted the primaries.

One of them, Mr Ephraim Inyang-eyen, the Senatorial aspirant for Akwa Ibom South district, and immediate past Chief of Staff to the Governor boycotted the primaries.

Inyang-eyen who said he boycotted the primaries because it was illegal to do so, stated that there was a subsisting matter in court challenging the credibility of the ad hoc delegates election which would come up for hearing on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.

The primaries which commenced at about 1pm due to the late arrival of materials was peaceful and produced the party’s candidates for the 26 state constituencies and 10 federal constituencies in the state.

Speaking on the reconciliation, Governor Emmanuel said the party is a big umbrella that will carry everybody, saying those who felt excluded will accommodated.

Emmanuel stated that a committee will be set up that will talk to the aggrieved members, and bring them back to the party.

“Today I decided to obey the rules of the Electoral Act that disqualifies me from being a delegate, that is why I couldn’t go near the venue of the event. That is number one.

“Number two, I am made to understand in this life that anything that comes our way we see it as an Act of God. What is happening today that the party has to use only Ad-hoc delegates, nobody can explain.

“Right from the day the Act was signed up till today, nobody detected it. It was detected so late. We can’t blame anybody. We can only see it as an act of God. That is how it is meant to be. I keep telling people no two elections are the same.

“So, this is how God wants it this year. So, let’s leave it that way. If God is doing a new thing in Nigeria, I pray that new thing will dovetail to a new order, a new system for 2023 when we will have a new set of President who will not be up to 60years; who will have the energy to take care of Nigeria, and that person will be Udom Emmanuel.

“For today’s conduct, all the reports I have is that the process was free, fair and successful. Kudos for the PDP, that they are always getting it right.

“We hope to immediately set up a reconciliation committee for those who are feeling aggrieved that probably the process today has excluded them.

“Nobody in this country by January, February this year, saw this coming, so we must take it that way. So we must set up a committee to talk to them and then bring them back to the party.

“The party is a big umbrella it will take everybody. And we appeal to those who feel excluded that the party will accommodate everybody. If you cannot be a Legislature certainly you will be something else,” he stated.