I’ve Paid My Dues, Says Ihedioha

Deputy Speaker, House Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha said he has fully paid his due as a loyal, tried and tested party stalwart. He is a founding member of party since 1998 and has never left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for any other political grouping.

This is even as he denied ever manipulating the just-concluded delegate elections of the party.

Ihedioha said he has earned the trust and confidence of most of the critical leaders and stakeholders of the PDP both in Imo State and beyond and that accounts for the support and acceptability his ambition has enjoyed. According to him, it was not a surprise that loyalists and supporters overwhelmingly emerged as delegates at the congress.

In a statement issued by the Director-General of his campaign organization, Dr Chris Okewulonu, the deputy speaker described the petition written to the national leadership of the party by some aspirants as a statement of misgivings against the electoral panel that conducted the election.

He said that he never manipulated the ward congress as alleged by the aspirants  and publications in some national dailies, rather restricted himself to his ward where he had cast his vote for the delegate candidate of his choice.

The statement described the media report as a bundle of inconsistencies, false innuendos and outright misrepresentation of what transpired in the said delegate election in the state.

Part of the petition claimed that the electoral Panel withheld the original result sheets and distributed photocopies instead to the various wards, as well as re writing the result sheets in a hotel.

While asserting that the claims by the aspirants were contradictory to their earlier claim of the election not conducted in over 90 per cent of the wards in the state, thereby requesting for cancellation in 15 wards, it wondered why the aspirants did not call for as well as the cancellation of the remaining 12 wards.

“They claimed that reports gathered from all over the state showed that elections did not take place in over 90% of the wards, then in another breadth, they requested for cancellation of elections in 15 local governments where no form of election was held”. How come the petitioners are asking for a repeat in only 15 LGAs? What about the other 12 LGAs? Are they calling for the cancellation and fresh congresses in areas where they lost and want the results upheld in their strongholds,” the statement noted.

Ihedioha, therefore urged the aspirants to close ranks in the spirit of brotherliness and decorum to help achieve the aim of sending the opposition party parking in the state, maintaining that his early state consultation across the state is his stronghold.