Pius Anyim, one of the applicants for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the party’s recently concluded presidential primaries, has accused party delegates of voting based on “primordial sentiments.”
Anyim said this in a statement on Sunday.
During the PDP presidential primaries on Saturday, former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential primaries emerged as the winner of the exercise.
Atiku garnered 371 votes to defeat his closest rival, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who garnered 237 votes in the hotly contested primary.
A total of 767 delegates were accredited for the exercise.
But the former federation government secretary, who received 14 votes, said he was surprised to note that the vote’s consideration was not based on burning national issues.
“I am proud to have ridden the race to the end,” said Anyim.
“I am amazed that the consideration to vote for the PDP presidential candidate was not based on national hot-button issues and how to solve them, but on old overriding sentiments,” Anyim added. “It seems doubtful that our quest for one nation is yielding results,” he said.
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However, the former president of the Nigerian Senate congratulated Atiku on his appearance as the party’s candidate.
Mr. Anyim expressed his gratitude to his supporters and those who voted for him during the exercise and assured that he would continue to stand tall until a “new Nigeria of our collective dreams” is born.
He also praised the party’s convention committee for “doing a great job” in running the exercise.
On Friday, with just 24 hours to go before the primaries, Anyim had sounded the alarm over the absence of delegates from Ebonyi state on the party’s delegate list.
But, in his latest statement, he was silent on whether the list of delegates was later rectified by the party leadership before the exercise.
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