From Ralph Omololu Agbana,
As the gubernatorial primary election of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State holds tomorrow, one of the aspirants in the the POP, former Deputy Governor, Yomi Awoniyi has listed conditions for continued participation in the race for the PDP ticket.
Awoniyi told The Guardian yesterday that rather than capitalize on the crisis rocking the ruling APC in the state, top ranking PDP leaders at the national level had succeeded in creating a bigger problem for the party.
He alleged that the list of delegates arising from the state congress of March 29, 2023, supervised by the Senator Abdul Ningi-led committee has been “hijacked and doctored by some high ranking officials of the party at the national level and skewed in favour of Senator Dino Melaye”.
According to Awoniyi, 185 delegates out of out of a total of 750 delegates has been “penned down” for Melaye.
“When the issue came to light, nine other aspirants petitioned the appeal panel set up by the party and chaired by Senator Umar Idris, a former minister of transport, that the party should revert to the true result of the proceedings of March 29th state congress and we are awaiting a favourable result.
“We are committed to participating in a very legitimate aspirations. Unfortunately, while APC had crisis, PDP now surpassed APC in crisis creation”.
However, in a statement by former Vice-president and presidential flag bearer of the PDP, Atikun Abubakar through his Special Adviser on Media Public, Tunde Olusunle disclaimed involvement in the process leading to the governorship primaries of the party in Kogi State.
Yesterday’s denial statement over his alleged medling in the Kogi PDP Guber primaries and preference for Melaye’s emergence as flagbearer was the second of it’s kind by Atiku within one week.
“Once again, he dissociates himself wholly and expressly from political manipulations and illegalities of any colouration. He admonished the leadership of the PDP to ensure religious compliance with and adherence to the original Kogi State PDP list of delegates as produced by the freewill of stakeholders on March 29, 2023”, the statement added.