The
former chairman of the caretaker committee of the Peoples Democratic
Party has revealed the reason why five candidates from the south-west
region lost in the convention.
Ahmed Markarfi
While speaking on Channels TV programme, "Sunrise Daily" on
Monday, former chairman of the caretaker committee of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmed Makarfi, spoke on the possible reason for
the loss of the south-west in the party’s national convention.
Five candidates from the region had withdrawn from the chairmanship
race and adopted Tunde Adeniran as their consensus candidate, and
Adeniran later emerged second in the exercise with 231 votes, far behind
the 2,000 votes garnered by Uche Secondus, the new chairman.
The influential politician said the south-west never had a true consensus candidate for the chairmanship position, adding a “damaging campaign” engineered by an unnamed individual rubbed negatively on the region.
He said; “For the south-west, it was at the convention venue
that they resolved on a consensus candidate. And even then, another
candidate came to the state box and met the leaders and said, look, they
never resolved, that he was still in the race. So, it was a total
confusion.
“Somebody signs on behalf of other candidates and say ‘we now
have a consensus candidate and please support him’ and another going
round and saying ‘no, we don’t have a consensus candidate’.
He, however, did not say who that individual was. “The whole
issue of the south-west was its inability to put itself in order in good
time. And then allowing some characters that cannot stand up in terms
of credibility to occupy the political and media landscape; all kinds of
abuses.
“And we cautioned them that that negative campaign by one
individual was damaging them as people and members of the PDP and they
needed to call that person to order. Still, they never called him to
order. And as far as I know, ninety-percent of PDP members that person
comes to will run away.”
While also speaking on the allegation that the convention was
marred by a ‘unity list’, Makarfi said list featured names of
individuals and their respective positions, adding that all positions in
the list later corresponded with the list of successful candidates
announced.
But Makarfi insisted “nobody hosted anything like unity list on
delegates.” He said: “Nobody had a list going to the polling unit.
Every delegate had his ballot paper and at each polling unit, names of
those standing for the election were there. And delegates look at that
and made their choice.
“In politics, you also have consensus building. Even before the
convention, you had geopolitical zones and states endorsing candidates.
So if a zone is endorsing a particular candidate, they must have
consulted with their delegates so they must have arrived at that venue
with already a decision as to who to vote for.
“Before the convention, people were going round and campaigning
and some states, changing their mind. So the issue of any particular
list may be an issue of a state or zone who has come to a decision that
this is where we were going.”
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