Battles for delegates rage in APC, PDP

Naira and h a r d c u r r e n c y rains are falling in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and probably the other registered political groupings ahead of next year‘s General elections. The beneficiaries of the other foreign currencies and the Naira downpour are delegates who will pick their parties as candidates for the 2023 electoral jamboree.

The foreign currencies are the dollar, pound, and Euro. Buying the souls and consciences of delegates is now part of the political practice in Nigeria which has thrown up some incompetent and questionable characters as leaders at all levels. Fingers are pointed at others even by those perpetrating and perpetuating the vice.

The rains are heavier for the presidential primaries but fall at all levels. For example, in Abia, a gubernatorial hopeful is accusing the state government of plotting to bribe the delegates to abort his bid, an allegation it denied. Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, alleged that the Abia State Government was planning to pay delegates to the governorship primary the sum of N2 million each for them vote for their ‘anointed’ candidate.

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Abaribe, representing Abia South Senatorial district and a governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP, made the allegations during his consultation tour to Bende Local Government Area.

‘’The Abia Government is planning to pay delegates N2 million each and there are 1,700 delegates, which makes it a total of N3.4 billion which they have budgeted for buying of the governorship ticket,” he alleged.

The outspoken Senate minority leader passionately appealed to the delegates to the primary to vote according to their conscience and not be swayed by monetary inducement. www.thetrumpet.ng “If you delegates make a mistake in the choice of our governorship candidate, all of us have made a mistake.

If you take the N2m and vote according to their dictates, then know now that once that person is elected, he will become a puppet in their hands – the first thing they will do is to demand repayment of the N3.4 billion they invested in his election.

“It’s not any system that is going to decide our governorship candidate, it’s not Abuja, it’s you delegates, vote according to your conscience”, he counseled them, “Its time to rise up and save Abia. The era of imposition has ended, the era of system has ended, the era of Abuja has ended.

We will not allow them to continue passing our fate from hand to hand. “For PDP to win, let us not make the mistake of the past. You delegates must decide the b way forward, you willl vote in secret, vote according to your conscience, the power is in in you hands, If they give you money, take it, it is your money in the first place, it is the money they should have used for development of Abia, they have stockpiled to buy your conscience. Vote according your conscience, do not be afraid whatever they have made you swear to, it will not work.” Abaribe who maintained that he has always stood for justice, argued that they planned to zone him out because of his stance.

“I support zoning, but it is zoning to capability, it is zoning to capacity, it is zoning to integrity that I support”, he affirmed. He urged the delegates to vote for him as the PDP gubernatorial candidate and promised to work to restore Abia as number one state in the federation and the bride and pride of Igboland.

Presidential and other aspirants in the paries have been meeting delegates to woo them, even ignoring efforts aimed at consensus candidacy.

Most of the aspirants believe that they have enough financial and other muscles to get their parties’ tickets, as well as considerations such as ethnoreligious factors, presidential and other endorsements etc. Some hired and paid analysts are also giving the tickets to various aspirants. An example of a state where the delegate will be keenly fought for in the APC and PDP is Delta, The Trumpet gathered.

An observer of DeltaL 2023 stated: “To all governorship aspirants check the statistics below and do a simple mathematics before embarking on delegate consultations and before the ward congress to elect the 3- Adhoc delegates and the national delegates (1 per LGA ).” TOTAL NUMBER OF STATUTORY DELEGATES PER LGA: DELTA SOUTH 1.BOMADI =100 2. BURUTU =109 3. PATANI =99 4. ISOKO SOUTH =104 5. ISOKO NORTH =114 6. WARRI SOUTH =106 7. WARRI NORTH =97 8. WARRI SOUTH WEST =101 TOTAL =830 DELTA CENTRAL 1. UGHELLI SOUTH = 104 2. UGHELLI NORTH =109 3. ETHIOPE EAST =105 4. ETHIOPE WEST =108 5. OKPE =100 6. SAPELE =101 7. UVWIE =96 8. UDU =98 TOTAL =821. DELTA NORTH 1ANIOCHA SOUTH =105 2. ANIOCHA NORTH =100 3.NDOKWA EAST =96 4. NDOKWA WEST 5. IKA NORTH EAST =116 6. IKA SOUTH =105 7. OSHIMILI NORTH =97 8 . OSHIMILI SOUTH =106 9 . UKUANI =100 TOTAL =920 SUMMARY 1.SOUTH =830 2. CENTRAL =821 3.NORTH =920 GRAND TOTAL =2,571.