Ahead of the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States, the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies to be objective and abide by the rules of the electoral process.
The acting national chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja while issuing certificates of return to the governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada and his Bayelsa State counterpart, Seriake Dickson.
They both emerged guber candidates of PDP ahead of governorship polls.
Kogi State governorship election holds on November 21, while that of Bayelsa takes place on December 5, this year.
Secondus, who described Bayelsa and Kogi as traditional PDP states, charged “INEC and other agencies to play by the rules of the game so that elections will be won and lost fairly. No one should try to take it by force.”
He added that no amount of intimidation can take the states from PDP.
He stated that the outcome of the primaries was the “first time that we can beat our cheat and say internal democracy has taken place”, adding that this is “completely a new PDP from what we used to know.”
The acting national chairman further underscored the transparency of the primaries, noting that members of other political parties had to call him that “this was a demonstration of complete free and fair primaries”.
He taunted the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties to “borrow a leaf from us” with regards to conduct of party primaries.
On his part, the Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, carpeted the APC for the controversy that rocked the party’s first primary election, describing it as a show of shame.
Also, Wada expressed confidence that PDP will win the election in Kogi State.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE
