Honourable Dimeji Bankole, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Chairman, Congress Committee for the election of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag-bearer in the February 6, 2010 governorship election in the state has discarded the delegates’ list produced by the Governor Gabriel Suswam-led Ward Congress Committee.
In its place, the Bankole committee has demanded for the list of the delegates who won in the field as produced by the Ambassador Hassan Adamu-led Appeal Panel.
This followed a meeting of the 47 aspirants with the speaker on his arrival on Thursday evening where he announced that the list to be used would be the one produced by the appeal panel to ensure justice and probity.
It would be recalled that majority of the aspirants had protested against the irregularities that marred the ward congress election of September 28, and the initial blind eyes turned to the fraud by the Bankole committee.
Earlier, the congress which would have taken place last Friday was halted by a court injunction.
One of the aspirants speaking to Elombah.com praised the courageous disposition of Bankole in insisting that his committee would only work with the list produced by the Adamu-led Appeal Panel after it had listened to complaints of the aggrieved and verified their claims.
One of the chieftains of the PDP, Ngozi Agudosi, on behalf of some of the aspirants said that no single person can arrogate the right to produce any candidate of the party for the election in his hands.
The aspirants commended the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole for sticking to the rule of law and due process. Agudosi said what Bankole did was to avert another mayhem and anarchy in Anambra state.
Also a Press Conference in Awka, another aspirant, Senator Ikechukwu Obiorah said while announcing his return to the process that “When the speaker came, he saw what was on ground and was given the same spurious list prepared by the Ward Congress Committee and he refused to work with it. He insisted that the appeal process must be completed and the authentic list compiled. He insisted that those found not to have participated or won in the ward congress election should not participate in the state congress”.