The Ikeja Federal Constituency Primary of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), held at Victory Home School, Toyin Street, Ikeja, has been declared inconclusive by the counting officer, Olalekan Al-Maroof.
The Nigerian News Agency (NAN) reports that the primary elections were declared inconclusive following a disagreement between district chairmen over the list of delegates sent by the party secretariat.
They had claimed that it was different from the districts’ voted list of candidates.
The Federal Constituency of Ikeja consists of 10 districts, with three delegates from each of the districts, making a total of 30 delegates, expected for the primaries.
However, the presidents of the barrios disagreed, saying that those presented as delegates were not members of the barrios and should be disenfranchised.
However, Constituency 2 of the State House Assembly was held, as the district chairs allowed the vote to proceed as planned.
The election in the constituency was won by Olumide Omitade, who got 11 votes to defeat the other two candidates, who got two and one vote respectively.
Kate Onyechere, the president of all non-indigenous, PDP, told NAN that the list sent by the party secretariat did not match what the district presidents sent, therefore the election could not take place.
“We can see what we are experiencing here. The list sent by the secretary of state was different from the one sent to them by the presidents of the districts.
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“We cannot continue being like this; we have to organize ourselves properly if we want to have any chance of winning the next elections.
“I also noticed that the young people here are agitated and I asked why they are like that. Is it because of the little money they were given the reason for this type of shame?
“We have to behave well because this is the reality of the 21st century and we have to see that we are doing things right,” he said.
The winner of the Ikeja State Assembly House 2, Mr. Omitade, praised the conduct of the elections and the opportunity to be featured as the PDP’s standard-bearer for the 2023 elections.
“I am happy to win these primaries, I thank everyone who participated in the election, my PDP party, the delegates and others.
“The election process is fine with me and I’m happy with the way things turned out,” he said.
(YAYA)