Large-scale irregularities and imposition of candidates in the recent primaries for state and national assembly contestants by the Action Congress of Nigeria in Edo state may lead to mass defection of members to other parties, especially the People's Democratic Party, a leader of party in Esan Central, Matthew Emiohe, has said.
He called on the state governor to rescue the party from the impending calamity that awaited it if the crisis that trailed the congresses was not properly looked into.
"The so-called primary that was conducted in Edo State was flawed. Actually, there was no primary but imposition of candidates," Mr Emiohe said. "This is a departure from what the governor has been preaching, the one-man-one-vote was jettisoned. The PDP primaries were very transparent. The governor's one-man-one-vote is nonsense. The way it is now, I don't think that the ACN can win any election, if care is not taken. The imposition is across the state and everybody is annoyed. If they knew they were going to do imposition why did they allow people to spend their money campaigning?"
Mr Emiohe alleged that the primaries in ward 10 of his district was especially poorly conducted, just as he alleged that the governor's men wrote results for elections that never took place.
One of the contestants, Patrick Inobemhe, accused the state government and leaders of the party of undue interference in the primaries...
Upstanding PDP
Mr. Inobemhe, who was seeking nomination to the State House of Assembly, alleged that in a bid to install their supporters as candidates for the general election, party leaders and government officials resulted to using all forms of dubious methods to edge out other contestants.
Mr Inobemhe, who spoke with journalists on Sunday, regretted that the so-called primaries in Edo State was only carried out to deceive the people into believing that the principle of one-man-one-vote was been upheld.
He subsequently called INEC to investigate alleged cases of rigging in the Edo ACN primaries and disqualify any candidate who was not the people's choice.
"The PDP we have so much maligned in the past came up with one of the best primaries in the state, we expected the ACN to even do better, but what we are seeing is far from been what we expected," he said.
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