Anselm Ojezua, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant for the upcoming Edo election, has said that the party risked not producing a candidate for the election over irregularities.

Mr Ojezua, a lawyer, said this in an interview on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said this was based on the irregularities that marred the primary election of the ad-hoc delegates two weeks ago, where some of them were not allowed into the venue of the election.

Mr Ojezua said the development would be bad for Governor Godwin Obaseki, given his past disputes within and outside the party.

The former APC chairman in Edo said it was at the meeting that he and other aggrieved aspirants convinced the PDP appeal committee of the illegalities perpetrated.

“The appeal committee met us, and it was at that meeting that we were able to convince them that what happened was a sham. The chairman of the appeal committee confronted us with the result sheets, which we were seeing for the very first time, which we should have seen before the exercise, but it never happened.

“It never happened because the national organising secretary of the party, Alhaji Umar, had sent those materials directly to the Edo Government House,” he said.

Mr Ojezua also said the chairman of the election committee, Governor Peter Mbah, turned himself into an observer rather than the election supervisor.

According to him, the process was ongoing before the chairman of the exercise came in the following day.

Mr Ojezua stated, “They had distributed these materials on the third and the chairman appeared midday on the fourth and inspected two locations and expressed satisfaction.

“I said that he misconceived his assignment; rather than being the one to conduct the election, he came to observe, and after observing, he made a comment. But he forgot that it was his responsibility to meet with us even before the process started. It was his responsibility to deploy the officers that were given to him to work with.”

He added, “All these were done in his absence before he arrived. Even when he arrived, he was made to sign result sheets as if he were the one who conducted those elections concurrently in 192 locations. We pointed out those anomalies to the appeal committee, and they were quite surprised.

“Again, they were also shocked that there was no stakeholders’ meeting before the commencement of the process. That is why we said that the process was compromised even before they started.”

Mr Ojezua added that the chairman and his secretary signed all the results from the 192 wards.

“In view of that, the PDP stands the risk of not producing a candidate based on the irregularities. I can tell you with confidence that should they not allow common sense to prevail, PDP will end up not having a candidate in this election.

“The governor knows the right thing to do. I am holding him accountable because he is the leader. Let him take note that he has an opportunity to do so. But in the event that he doesn’t do so, let him take full responsibility for whatever happens,” he said. 

(NAN)