By Nahum Sule (Taraba State Correspondent, in Jalingo)
The Aggrieved members of the Taraba State People's Redemption Party (PRP) have vilified the primary election which produced Alhaji Lateef Kolawale Abiola, the eldest son of Bashorun MKO Abiola of the June 12 saga, as the party’s flagbearer for the 2023 presidential election.
They conveyed their grievances, as party members in their hundreds, as they stormed Jalingo, the Taraba state capital, to boycott the primary election that was held on 5 June 2022. They said the National Working Committee (NWC) of PRP, should, as a matter of urgency, return the party's ticket to Patience Ndidi.
In a press statement approved by the state secretary of the party and leader of the protest, Mr Samuel Emmanuel, the party stalwarts said the Presidential primary exercise held on June 5, 2022, was a complete conspiracy, adding that imposing a candidate through godfatherism is not in line with the party's principles.
Emmanuel emphasised that the exercise suffered from substantial non-compliance with the promising of the Constitution of PRP, the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) and the party’s guidelines for the conduct of the primaries.
Protesting in Jalingo on Friday, October 7, 2022, the party members carried placards disowning Lateef Kolawale Abiola as the party’s Presidential Candidate and saying that Patience Ndidi is their rightful choice.
"This was the pretext under which the primary election in Taraba was held and it was only after the announcement and declaration of Lateef Kolawale Abiola as the winner that information got to us that the fabrication by the NEC (National Executive committee Committee) was done deliberately to misguide the delegates and undermine the integrity of the process in favour of Kola Abiola.
"It is such undemocratic acts perpetuated by the leadership of the party at the national level that has continued to give the supporters of Madam Patience Ndidi a cause for concern.
"PRP is our party and we will stick to it and make sure that Nigeria becomes great by the intervention of our party, but we must first put our house in order and show true democratic conduct by just handling well the matter at hand.
"Therefore, our prayer is that the leadership of the party should give back the mandate of the party to Patience Ndidi and immediately withdraw the nomination filed in favour of Kola Abiola.
"We describe the presidential primary on 5 June 2022 that brought in Lateef Kolawale Abiola as illegal. It was not an election as it did not follow the guidelines of the party or the electoral law. This is because of the unlawful interference of the NEC.
"Therefore, for us in Taraba state who are members of PRP and supporters of Madam Patience Ndidi Key, call on members of the NEC to please give us our mandate which is Patience Ndidi Key as our presidential candidate come 2023", Mr Samuel Emmanuel stated.
The Taraba PRP members, therefore, requested the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to intervene in the matter to forestall an avoidable crisis. NNL.
