By Onyekachi Eze
The top contender of the just concluded Imo State governorship primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu (Samdaddy) has rejected the outcome of the October 1, 2018 exercise.
Samdaddy came 2nd in the election held at the Kanu Nwankwo Sports center Owerri, with a total votes of 1282, while Chief Emeka Ihedioha was declared winner having polled 1723 votes.
However, the Senator representing Imo East has described the exercise as a flop and slap on democracy, by calling for a cross examination of the Imo PDP guber primary electoral committee, headed by Senator Emma Chiedoziem Nwaka.
Briefing newsmen at his Divine Mandate Movement office along Okigwe road Owerri on Tuesday, Samdaddy said what happened on Monday was the major reason that put PDP where it has been in the past 8 years.
He alleged that there was over voting, and those not qualified were given tags against party’s guidelines and resolutions for the primary elections.
It was revealed that out of the 6 aspirants that contested in the election, 5 of them objected to the issues surrounding the delegate list, stating that the list was shown to them only 3 hours to the commencement of the exercise.
Continuing, the aggrieved Federal lawmaker opined that Imo people are mourning because they believed PDP has gotten it right again with the presence of Divine Mandate Movement, but were disappointed by the level of irregularities that climaxed the entire voting exercise.
According to Samdaddy, “APC people were killing themselves because Divine Mandate Movement was in the race, so everybody was struggling to meet up to the challenges and demands to beat PDP, but it turned out this way”.
Further accusing the election committee of bias and unclean job, Senator Samuel Anyanwu hinted that having made wider consultations, he has appealed against the outcome of the election while waiting for the prompt response of the appeal panel.
According to the former lawmaker who represented Ikeduru State Constituency, one can only have a spirit of sportsmanship when an election exercise is transparent, rather than an illegality.
He averred that none of the agents signed the said result sheets, talk more of them (aspirants) seeing the result sheets.
Meanwhile, he beckoned on the party to do the needful before it becomes late.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Imo State Head Office along Okigwe Road, Owerri yesterday was full of activities as members from all the three Senatorial zones of Imo State waited in vain to collect materials for conducting primaries for Senatorial Aspirants.
Trumpeta learnt that the plan by the PDP hierarchy in Abuja to compensate Senator Samuel (Sam Daddy) Anyanwu with the Owerri Senatorial ticket was the root cause of the human traffic at the PDP Head office in Owerri.
Senator Anyanwu was representing Owerri zone in the Senate until he jettisoned the seat to contest for the Imo PDP Governorship primary which he lost to Hon Emeka Ihedioha on October 1, 2018.
However, Senator Anyanwu who the next day called a Press Conference to reject the result of the primary after accepting the earlier announcement and hugging the winner, Emeka Ihedioha, was said to have resolved to pursue his Governorship ambition in another political party, until the PDP National office stepped in to stop Anyanwu from leaving PDP, with the bargain of allowing him return to Senate than be lost to another political party.
Trumpeta was informed that the idea to return Anyanwu as Senator by the PDP Bigmen in Abuja to the detriment of Aspirants who had already purchased forms and gone through screening Irked the likes of Senator (Mrs) Chris Anyanwu and Hon Ezenwa Onyewuchi who all agreed that Anyanwu should not be given such benefit, even to join the race at the middle of the course.
Chris Anyanwu, Ezenwa Onyewuchi and Chief Ugo-Sly were the major contenders for the Owerri Senate Seat until the latest crisis.
However, the Owerri Senate issue affected Orlu and Okigwe zones, whose own primaries could not hold, as Owerri zone PDP members insisted that no material would leave the party office without that of Owerri, which should be conducted simultaneously with Okigwe and Orlu Senatorial zones.
Meanwhile, attempts by our Reporters to speak to Imo PDP Chieftains proved abortive as no clear situation could be given to Trumpeta why the exercise which was billed for yesterday could not hold.
But a PDP official who spoke under anonymity told this Newspaper that the Imo PDP Senatorial Panel was in a serious meeting with the State Chairman, Chief Charles Ezekwem and that Imo PDP was waiting for “signal from Abuja” for the final say on the Senator Sam Daddy Anyanwu matter.
“Abuja will tell us what to do. Whatever they say is final. If they decide to give the Owerri Senate ticket to Senator Anyanwu, there is nothing anybody can do about that” Trumpeta was told.
However, it was a mixed reaction from Imo PDP members who were in their thousands waiting for the situation to be resolved.
While some said that Senator Sam Daddy Anyanwu should be given the chance to contest with others in the Senatorial race, others said that he should not be given that opportunity to contest for two different positions in the same party since he had taken his turn in the Governorship primary of October 1,2018.
Others maintained that he should be a good loser and move on with his life, as Imo PDP cannot be torn apart just because of one person.
Some others who spoke to Trumpeta wondered what would be the fate of those Aspirants who have spent millions of Naira in the last three years pursuing their ambitions only to be asked in the last minute to accommodate Anyanwu, or step down for an Aspirant who joined the race because he failed in another position.
Political observers believe that if the Sam Daddy Senatorial saga is not properly handled, it may lead to the crisis in the PDP as the general election approach.
