By Ruth Oginyi
The Interparty Advisory Council (IPAC) Ebonyi state chapter Friday elected a new executive to man the council in the state for the next two years.
Correspondent reports that there was a melodrama at the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), venue of the election with aggrieved walking out of the election.
Fourteen political parties were accredited to vote during the election which was witnessed by INEC officials and security agents.
But controversy ensued shortly after a motion was moved for the dissolution of the former leader of the council to enable the election of new leaders to hold proper.
After the motion was moved by Chika Samuel of the ADP and seconded by Catherine Ohakam of APM for the dissolution of the former executives of the council, People’s Democratic Party(PDP) which was represented by its Deputy Chairman, Ifeanyi Nworie moved his motion calling for the suspension of the election.
He alleged that there was no transparency in the processes that led to the exercise and accused the Special Assistant to Governor David Umahi on Labour and Interparty Affairs, Mrs. Jenifer Adibe of hijacking the process to favor the state government.
The PDP representative after making his claims walked out of the election venue with other aggrieved political parties.
He said, “I am appearing in protest and bringing o your attention the irregularities in the processes of this exercise and the unlawful exclusion of my arty the PDP in the ongoing election. It was a deliberate calculated effort to scheme our party out of this election.
“On 29th December 2021, the special assistant to the Governor on Interparty Dialogue Jenifer Adibe called for a meeting in her office and directed that anybody who has an interest in the election should soft-pedal, that she wants the current executives that were just dissolved to come back for second tenure unopposed. This brought a lot of controversies and the meeting was marred with quarrels because where a political party will be for-closed in involvement in the election, I wouldn’t know how it will look like”, he said.
But Adibe explained that the law provides that she calls for a meeting over IPAC election as special assistant on Interparty Affairs to avoid breakdown of law and order.
“There have been a lot of crises in IPAC. So, I have tried to stabilize the system and not to cage them. so, nobody was told not to participate in the election”, she said.
Comrade Morgan Nnaemeka of the ADC also challenged Adibe and called for the suspension of the election.
Both Nworie and Nnaemeka submitted petitions against the election before IPAC national officials. The due engaged the IPAC national officials verbally which made the exercise rowdy. The two-party Chiefs later walked out of the venue of the election as the officials did not act on their protests.
The election was however later held with former leaders of the council returned unopposed.
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