Obong Ide Owodiong-Idemeko, aspirant to the just concluded contest for Uyo Senatorial seat, has congratulated the declared winner of the exercise, Senator Bassey Albert, “in the support of our collective march to protect and grow Nigeria’s nascent democracy.”
He thanked the people of Uyo Senatorial District and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the opportunity given to him to “take up the political gauntlet and run for the Senate.”
Obong Owodion-Idemeko in a statement said “As a member of Uyo Federal Constituency, the decision was envisaged as a grand opportunity for me to leverage on and offer a distinguished and distinct parliamentary representation of people of the district at the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The bonafide reason and sole import of that decision was however, based on the conviction placed in the spirit of zoning of which party principle, our great party, the PDP, had overwhelmingly indicated to uphold in the best interest of furthering our democracy; and impacting our people.”
“But after all had been said and done, and the nomination to the position won and lost; on behalf of members and supporters of Ide Campaign Organization, [ICO] and 1001+ Voices Initiative for People Empowerment, I sincerely extend my warm congratulation to the declared winner of the exercise, Obong (Senator) Bassey Albert Akpan on this auspicious occasion in the life of our party and in the support of our collective march to protect and grow Nigeria’s nascent democracy. As we all know, no system is perfect, especially in the conduct of elections into public positions. The exercise believed to have been conducted by our great party, the PDP was no exception to this; as it was flawed with several irregularities. Certainly, the exercise no doubt was a very eventful one as it gave us more food for thought and a room to make amends, in our outreach to rescue the fate of democracy in our country.”
“An opportunity like this therefore offers us a time to carefully examine and critically reflect on the just concluded exercise and its processes, all with a view to proffering robust and sincere solutions as would ideally safeguard the repetition of its mistake in the future life of our growing democracy. It was a good fight but sadly enough, things didn’t pan out the way we thought it would. I have no doubt learned a few lessons from this experience and about the extent of the poverty of the mind afflicting our people. It was strictly a contest we entered against the establishment, but sadly too, many of us could not rise above the perks of mediocrity.”
“With these strong points in focus, and against a groundswell of popular opinion, an exercise in which the State Party Chairman, Obong Paul Ekpo was expected to play an impartial role, but rather elected to be overtly seen as being practically partisan is hugely condemnable to all right thinking individuals. According to the PDP Electoral Guidelines (Part II, paragraph 8, subsection i) the State Chairman is a delegate to the Special State Congress and not to preside over it. In addition, Part IV, paragraph 16, sub-section viii clearly states that “The National Assembly Electoral Committee shall appoint Returning Officer for each House of Representatives and Senatorial Constituency and the Returning Officers shall be deployed to constituencies other than those of their origin.” It is therefore surprising that the State Chairman chose to play a superintending and highly compromised role at the Special State Congress by acting all parts as party enforcer, accreditor, ballot counter, collator and returning officer to the very exclusion of the National Assembly Electoral Committee members officially designated for the exercise, thereby rendering the exercise everything but free and fair. Considering that the State Chairman’s constituency of origin is Uyo he should have taken himself out of the Uyo Senatorial primaries. Moreover, it is not a hidden fact that a day before he had invited delegates to the Congress to his country home in Nkana, Etinan LGA to instruct them on who the party establishment wanted them to vote for. The rest is history.”
“The promise of the party to offer a free, fair and level playing ground for all aspirants in the race was of course, heavily compromised and largely left undelivered. The procedure was marred by myriad of irregularities including vote buying, ballot box stuffing, intimidation of delegates and other acts of impunity widely adopted by centrifugal forces within the party and strongly aimed at truncating the healthy realization of the democratic process. The hijack of the political process by minds otherwise opposed to democracy was largely indicated in the declared results which far exceeded and reflected more people than officially accredited delegates for the exercise. Bearing a sharp resonance to the past, it is however, instructive to note that this practice was a far cry from democracy as delegates and aspirants were denied the proper access to democracy that invariably begins with the right of the citizen to freely, consciously and without let or hindrance be allowed to participate in the leadership recruitment exercise; and all of which modalities were largely lacking in Tuesday, October 2, 2018 exercise.”
“Finally, in the swayed thinking of the party, the senatorial nomination stands perfected and effectively concluded. But it was not free, fair or credible. Though we do not act with desperation by rejecting the results or question its outcome, in the end, the last exercise was considered a classic example of a gross disenfranchisement of a whole people for sakes of securing a runaway victory against the people of Uyo Federal Constituency; the victory was by no means well earned. To this end, I wish to thank the good people of Uyo Senatorial District [USD], Uyo Federal Constituency [UFC], members of our great party and my teeming supporters who demonstrated a huge capacity for commitment, resilience, loyalty, acceptance, faith and sacrifice throughout the period of my electioneering and in the face of numerous challenges that we all encountered together.”
“We had worked together as a team and were successful in the demonstration of our determination to serve our people. It indeed, was a commitment made possible by hardwork; and I wish to recognize the efforts of everyone whose enduring partnership and unwavering support made me contribute my own little quota to the building and strengthening of democracy in Nigeria. I salute the courage of the purported “36 delegates” who voted for our political vision and candidacy; and will certainly double my efforts to ensure that their trust in me is not in vain. Indeed, I thank everyone for the immense role all played to ensuring that ours was evidently an altruistic mission. We have made new friends and encountered rewarding relationship in the past 12 months of our campaign. Thank you for having granted me the listening ear to what I had to offer.”
He concluded by saying, “I am pleased to therefore, enjoin all my supporters to join hands and work for the success of the party at all levels in the 2019 general elections regardless of the high level of impunity that reared its ugly head at the primaries. May God guide our steps aright.”
2019: OWODIONG-IDEMEKO SALUTES SENATOR ALBERT, SUPPORTERS
