By Douglas Okoro
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Ebonyi chapter, said that there was no parallel ward Congress in the state.
Mr Chika Nwoba, PDP’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) in Ebonyi who briefed journalists in Abakaliki on Saturday, said that the exercise was held in all the 171 wards of the 13 local government areas of Ebonyi.
He added that adequate preparation for a seamless exercise was made by the party.
He dismissed alleged conduct of parallel ward delegates congresses in the state adding that the “party is one big family,”.
He said that the officials who were in the state to conduct the exercise were duly accredited by the national leadership to come to Ebonyi.
He added that the exercise was peaceful, credible and transparent.
He said: “I’m not aware that anybody distributed any material that is different from the one that was just displayed by the returning officers; so, if anybody is in possession of material before now I may not be aware.
“But, the ones who came and displayed the materials they came with are the authentic ones and each of the 13 returning officers came with result sheet for an LGA of coverage.”
He said that the local government returning officers sent from the National Secretariat of the PDP arrived the state late and moved down to the various LGAs for the conduct of the congress.
“Officials from the national party secretariat for the conduct of the three-man delegate congress arrived the state very late.
“They briefed the party members who were at the party secretariat to receive them where they displayed the result sheets and materials for conduct of the exercise before they left for their respective LGAs.
“The exercise recorded huge success, there was no hitches or any parallel congress in any part of the state and we hope that outcome will be sent to the party’s national secretariat because the party is one big family,” Nwoba said.
He explained that the 13 returning officers interfaced with the five-man state ad-hoc electoral committee before they left for their respective LGAs.
Meanwhile, Sen. Obinna Ogba, one of the governorship aspirants on the PDP platform who briefed newsmen on the conduct of the ward congress, said that the exercise was successful.
He said: “This is the third time the party wanted to conduct this exercise, but, today we thank God that it has finally held.
He said that the party set up a panel to oversee the conduct of the exercise stressing that the party would always set up a panel for any election.
“The last congress we held was cancelled because the chairman of that panel reported that he was under duress and collected the materials he came with and because of that, the national leadership cancelled the membership and reconstituted a new one,” Ogba said. (NAN)