Imo PDP stakeholders stage walkout over ‘exclusion from presidential campaign council’

Stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo have rejected the party’s presidential campaign council list for the state.

According to NAN, the aggrieved members staged a walkout on Monday during a meeting of PDP stakeholders in Owerri, the Imo capital.

Addressing journalists, Ngozi Ogbu, former PDP chair in Okigwe LGA of the state, said the presidential campaign council list was drafted without due consultations.

“To our surprise and chagrin, the secretary of the party proceeded to read out a list of members of the council which led to a fracas. Majority of the stakeholders opposed the announcement due to lack of consultation and undue imposition of members,” Ogbu said.

Ogbu also alleged that the list was an attempt by Emeka Ihedioha, former Imo governor, to use the presidential council as an extension of his re-election campaign.

Commenting on the development, Gozie Nwachukwu, another party stakeholder, said a petition had earlier been written by members to express dissatisfaction.

“When this meeting was called, we had expected that we will nominate members of the committee, only for the secretary of the party to read a fictitious document naming its presidential campaign list,” Nwachukwu said.

“If Emeka Ihedioha wants to run for governor, he is free to do so, but to try to scrumptiously convert and camouflage a presidential campaign council to now become an Ihedioha re-election campaign council, it will not work and we reject it in clear terms.”

However, Ray Emeana, the Imo PDP secretary, said the presidential campaign council list captured “majority” of the people’s interest.

“It is normal that when the decision is taken by the party, it will not go down well with everybody. What is important is that we captured the majority of the people’s interest and the process followed was the process that was approved by the given authority,” he said.

“The national party sent us the criteria for the presidential campaign council for every state, including Imo, for selecting who becomes a member of the council.

“The guidelines say people with positions or former positions should be identified which we did and filled in their names appropriately.

“In addition, we asked every local government area to sort the names of their leaders which they did, and went on to ask the candidates to make submissions, which all of them did.

“If anybody has any grouse, such should be forwarded to the presidential campaign council and the national working committee.”