Thirteen aspirants for the Chairmanship position of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State have rejected the purported endorsement of one Mr Enemona Anyebe as the consensus candidate.

Meanwhile, a committee comprising former governors and party leaders had endorsed Mr Enemona Anyebe as the consensus for the PDP Chairmanship position in the state.

Addressing a national press conference in Lokoja, the spokesperson, forum of Kogi State PDP Chairmanship aspirants, Aruwa Ismaila, said the purported endorsement of Mr Anyebe as the party’s consensus candidate for the office of the State Chairman was false, misleading and only existing in the imagination of their sponsors.

Ismaila, who spoke on behalf of 13 aspirants vying for the State Chairmanship position in Kogi State, said “It has therefore become imperative to issue this rebuttal so that the unsuspecting public and particularly our PDP supporters and members are not misled, misguided and be sold a dummy.

“We state that, at the scantly attended meeting of Kogi East critical stakeholders held at Lokoja on Monday 29” April 2024, the Elders Review Report on Zoning which was presented on their behalf and for which none of the 6 Elders attended was outrightly rejected, especially on the issue of the Elders going outside their mandate to source for and nominate one Mr. Anyebe from Olamaboro.

“We the chairmanship aspirants spoke through our spokesperson Mr. Ismaila Aruwa which is me at the meeting and advocated for outright rejection of the Review report which even fell far short of the initial Zoning committee report led by Hon. Tom Zakari. Our position has NOT changed.

“We hereby profoundly and vehemently reject the Elder Review Committee Report. It should be noted that at no time between 29^th April to 1^st May 2024 was any meeting held to the knowledge and or in consultation with we the Aspirants to solicit for our views and or our input on the zoning issues.

“We the aspirants have not delegated our position to any Elder to Canvass for on our behalf nor are we ready to do so going forward.

“A consensus candidate can only be arrived at by all 13 aspirants discussing and agreeing with each other and not the Elders”.

According to the spokesperson, the leadership of the PDP in the state under Senator Danjuma La’ah as Chairman and Senator Philip Gyunka as Secretary has not put in place or activated any process among the 13 aspirants to arrive at a consensus candidate.

“The purported endorsement of Mr Enemona Anyebe, the party consensus candidate, is an affront on the Kogi State PDP leadership and a benign attempt to overreach their mandate and authority and such is hereby outrightly by rejected.

“It is to be noted that one of the sponsors of Mr Enemona Anyebe, Chief John Odawn called a meeting at Egume and told PDP supporters that a vote for Dino is a wasted vote and that they should all rally around the Socal Democratic Party, (SDP) candidate. It is no surprise therefore that he finds it more convenient to sponsor one of his surrogates who is ‘Anti Party Personified’ to be PDP State chairman.

“By this, the party is already compromised ahead of 2027. We cannot continue on the same path of impunity and imposition that has led the party to disastrous electoral losses over the past 12 years dancing to the whims and caprices of our leaders and expect a different result.

“On the issue of the so-called Mr Enmona Anyebe who never showed interest in the contest for state chairmanship, and did not participate in the screening and personal presentation processes before the zoning committee in Lokja on 20 January 2024, his purported candidature is dead on arrival for 2 reasons;

“Firstly, like Prince Obajeh argued vigorously at the Elders Review meeting, PDP is not Father Christmas that you give out what was not asked for; it is a recipe for outright failure. Secondly, Mr Enemona Anyebe’s candidature is fatally and constitutionally prohibited since he is under a disciplinary sanction on three levels for persistent anti-party activity,” he stated.

The aggrieved 13 aspirants however, resolved that the leadership of the party should create a level playing ground for all the aspirants vying for the PDP Chairmanship position in the state.

“The leadership of PDP in Kogi State should take steps to disqualify Mr Enemona Anyebe as not constitutionally qualified to seek to contest for office of state chairman, being party office and for not being among the 13 aspirants previously cleared and cannot be smuggled in through the back door.

“Consensus is about agreement by the 13 Aspirants to support one of their own. If no consensus is reached among the 13 Aspirants, the party should take steps to create a level playing ground for all 13 Aspirants to go to the field and subject themselves to the decision of the 738 delegates elected for that purpose in 13″ July 2024. This is the only path for our electoral success such that whoever emerges becomes the candidate of all,” he added. (Nigerian Tribune)

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