A governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, has withdrawn from participating in the party’s governorship primaries scheduled for February 22, 2024.
According to reports, Ogbeide-Ihama was the immediate past lawmaker for the Oredo Federal Constituency and also one of the nine aggrieved aspirants who protested against the conduct of the party’s ward delegates congress by the Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah.
In a letter dated February 12, 2024, and addressed to the National Secretary of the party, Senator Sam Anyanwu, Ihama said he withdrew from the primary because the process had been unjustly skewed to favour a particular aspirant.
He added that failure by the delegate’s congress appeal panel set up by the national working committee to address petitions made it impossible for him to continue to participate in the governorship primary.
Part of the letter read thus, “Over a year ago, in response to the overwhelming calls from a diverse section of our citizenry, I began the painstaking consultation process with various stakeholders in our state.
“Based on their response, I set out on the Journey of contesting for the governorship position of Edo State, following all the laid down processes provided by our party’s National Working Committee.
“Unfortunately, the process was corrupted by the several irregularities that marked the ward congress organized by our party In Edo State.
“I and eight other aspirants voiced our dissatisfaction with the transparency of the process and the culpability of the committee that was sent to oversee the process. It was glaring that the process had been skewed to favour a particular aspirant unjustly.
“As committed party members, we followed established processes to express our dissatisfaction by approaching both appeal panels set up to address issues arising from the congress with evidence of apparent violations of the guidelines published by the party.
“Unfortunately, the National Working Committee’s continued intention to deny aspirants a level playing field sadly ignored the recommendations from both panels.
“This situation has made it impossible to continue with a process in which I have lost confidence.
“Having consulted with my family, key stakeholders, and supporters, | have taken the hard, honourable, and logical decision to withdraw from the process of selecting a candidate for our party for the 2024 Edo Governorship Elections”, he said.
He, however, promised to communicate his subsequent line of actions to his supporters when necessary.