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Archived: How South-West lost Chairmanship position – Markarfi

The former Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmed Markarfi, has disclosed that the South-West lost the Chairmanship position of the Party due to division and failure to recognize and endorse a candidate.

The party’s convention, which took place last Saturday, saw five members from the South-Western region, withdraw from the race; Chief Bode George, Jimi Agbaje, Senator Rasheed Ladoja, Professor Taoheed Adedoja and Mr. Aderemi Olusegun.

This made Professor Tunde Adeniran the only surviving candidate from the region contesting the election, which was later won by Uche Secondus.

Speaking on Channels television, Markarfi said the inability of the region to certify a candidate and a “damaging campaign” made by an unnamed individual, backfired negatively on the region.

“The whole issue of the South-West was its inability to put itself in order, in good time. And then allowing some characters that cannot stand up in terms of credibility to occupy the political and media landscape; all kinds of abuses.

“For the South-West, it was at the convention venue that they resolved on a consensus candidate. And even then, another candidate came to the state box and met the leaders and said, look, they never resolved, that he was still in the race. So, it was a total confusion.”

The former Chairman also denied the provision of a “Unity List”, which was alleged to be in circulation, before the commencement of voting, at the convention.

The list was reported to contain names of individuals and preferred positions, which later corresponded with the outcome of the elections.

In defense, Markarfi said, before the elections, people were going around campaigning, while some States were deliberating on preferred candidates, which means the list may be from some States or Zone who had finalized decisions on preferred candidates.

 “Nobody had a list going to the polling unit. Every delegate had his ballot paper and at each polling unit, names of those standing for the election were there. And delegates look at that and made their choice.”

The result of the elections saw Uche Secondus emerging the winner with 2,000 votes, followed by Tunde Adeniran (231 votes) and Raymond Dokpesi (66 votes).

Adeniran and Dokpesi at first rejected the results, calling for its cancellation, claiming the election was rigged and marred with irregularities.

Chief Dokpesi later accepted the results and congratulated the winner, Mr. Secondus.

In most part of the world Zoning is used to regulate land use, but in Nigeria, it has come to have a political meaning as party and public offices are zoned to prevent suspicion and mistrust which is largely argued to have become worse after the concept of Zoning was introduced.

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