The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Imo State, has advised its National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, to stop casting a slur on the reputation of it’s leaders by accusing them of misappropriating funds meant for the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Anyanwu had last Monday, alleged that saboteurs in Imo PDP ruined the chances of the party’s candidates in the just concluded election by diverting the party’s intervention funds.
Reaction to Anyanwu’s claims in a statement signed by the party’s publicity Secretary, Collins Opuruozor, and made available to INNONEWS, the PDP said it is most unacceptable for Senator Anyanwu “to cast a slur on the reputation of the party and the integrity of our leaders”
The party noted that Senator Anyanwu’s claims “are not just effectively dubious but also completely untrue, Imo PDP is deeply worried about the interests which the Amaino born Distinguished Senator intends to advance through such bare-faced misinformation”
It gave details how funds used for the party’s presidential and National Assembly election was put to use.
Part of the statement read “For the avoidance of doubt, Senator Anyanwu was in attendance during the last stakeholders meeting of the Party on Thursday, February 23rd, 2023 where issues of appropriation of resources and disbursement thereof for the prosecution of the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the State were agreed upon. The framework adopted by stakeholders was handed over to the Finance Department of Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) for implementation.
“In line with this framework, the logistics for the elections in each Local Government Area was given to a team of stakeholders from that LGA, which included the Apex Leader of the LGA, the Chairman of the Party in the LGA, the Chairman of the Campaign Council in the LGA, the Candidates from the LGA, a National, Zonal and State Officer of the Party from the LGA and other Party stakeholders from the LGA. Till this day, the Party has never received any complaint of any sort of deviation from the generally-agreed framework. One begins to wonder what could have informed the outburst from the National Secretary.
The party said it finds “troubling the fact the our Presidential Candidate scored only ten (10) votes at Obodo Central School in Amaimo, Ikeduru LGA, which is the polling unit of our National Secretary. This is extremely difficult to explain.
It said that it is worrisome that “ despite the hues and cries that have trailed the elections in Imo State, our National Secretary has been most unwilling to lend his voice to the agitations by Imo PDP for the electoral process in Imo to be sanitized and the culprits in the February 25th electoral fraud be brought to book. We had expected the National Secretary to deploy his strategic position to draw attention to some of the indefensible electoral malpractices in the State.
“For instance, our victory in Nkwerre/Isu/Njaba/Nwangele Federal Constituency is being sat upon by Imo’s rampaging petty-dictator in cahoots with his corrupt enablers within INEC. Our senatorial victory in Imo North was also glaringly truncated. In areas where elections never held because of insecurity, results were written for the APC.
“For Imo East senatorial district, where our Party was coasting to victory, results were rewritten and swapped in Owerri Municipal just to halt our victory. Worse still, over fifty polling units in Mbaitoli and Owerri West were excluded from the final collation. For Orlu, Orsu and Oru East, the incumbent APC took advantage of the insecurity in the areas and diverted election materials and wrote results for themselves. These issues are fundamental, as they touch on the very integrity of our electoral process.