LAGOS JULY 2ND (URHOBOTOAY)-Delta State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain and former governorship aspirant, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has warned against the imposition of candidates in the coming primary elections in the state.
Onuesoke who gave the warning while addressing newsmen shortly after the Delta Central PDP meeting held at Eku, Ethiope East local government area of Delta State, advised that the ongoing rebranding exercise of the party in the state can only produce overwhelming victory for the party, if and only if, there would be free, fair and credible party primary elections.
He argued that the party should dispense with old ways of consensus and imposition of candidate on the party, just as he noted that failure to jettisoned old way would mean getting the same result it has always gotten over the years.
Hear him,” Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of every democracy and the primary mechanism for exercising the principle of sovereignty of the people. Through such elections, citizens participate in the governance of their country by choosing those who govern in the quest for development.”
Onuesoke who pointed out that Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has always been in support of a free, fair and credible primary election, however advised him to maintain his stand of taking every aspirant as his own, stressing that whoever wins the primary will be loyal to him.
He recalled that the party in the past had lost elections in some part of the state to opposition parties because of imposition of candidates on the people, just as he explained that for PDP to have a clean sweep of both the Senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly seats, all the aspirants should be giving fair and free opportunity to contest in the primaries.
Onuesoke who stated that he is against the practice of ‘godfatherism’ and imposition of candidates said imposition will not produce the best candidates, adding that,” The party has to guide against such obnoxious practice. The implication is that once a candidate is impose on other aspirants, those who are aggrieved will have an excuse to go the other way, while those who remain will work against the candidates imposed on them. In essence, imposition of candidate is the root cause of antiparty activities among loyalists and disunity in the party.”
Emphasizing further on the need for a free, fair and credible primary for PDP, Onuesoke advised that there should be free, fair and credible primary in all the 29 State Constituencies in the House of Assembly, the ten federal constituencies for House of Representatives and the three Senatorial seats, adding that once that is done, the party will be stronger and win all the seats.
He urged party leaders to give all the aspirants a copy of the delegates’ list to enable them have detailed information about all the people that would vote on the scheduled date of the primary election.