A former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ebonyi State,
Chief Silas Onu, has been declared winner of the party’s primary bye-election, ahead of the Ebonyi South senatorial district election, scheduled for February 3.
The primary election, which held on Monday at the zonal party secretariat in Afikpo, in Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, was to pick the PDP candidate to fill the seat vacated by former Majority Leader of the Senate, Senator Dave Umahi, who bagged the portfolio of Minister of Works under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
Onu polled a total of 143 votes to defeat his only opponent, Senator Amah Nnachi, who scored zero votes in the election.
The PDP Primary Bye-election Committee, led by Mr Lekan Rotimi, adjudged the election as credible, free and fair.
Declaring the results of the primary election after the conclusion of voting, Rotimi, said that the exercise complied with the party’s laid down guidelines and extant electoral law.
He said, “Chief Silas Onu, having complied with the relevant electoral law and the PDP primary election guideline, and having won the majority lawful votes, is hereby declared the winner and returned elected as the PDP candidate for the Ebonyi South senatorial district election.
“A total of 144 delegates were accredited to vote in the election, with one invalid vote recorded.”
He averred that the primary bye-election was monitored by relevant security agencies, including: the Department of State Security, Police, Civil Defence and army, as well as officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Rotimi dismissed allegations of parallel primary election in any part of the zone, insisting that his committee remained the only committee mandated by the national secretariat of the party to conduct the election in the zone.
He enthused, “I’m not aware of any other congress going on anywhere, like I said, I have told you my name and my committee members and we are the only people sent to conduct the election from Abuja.”
In an acceptance speech, Onu thanked delegates and party members from the Ebonyi South senatorial zone for entrusting their mandate to him, with a promise to deliver at the main election.
He said, “We do not have a divided house; you see what happened here today; the election was held peacefully, sadly, one of the local government areas delegates didn’t participate, though every arrangement was made for all delegates to be here.
“We still thank God. Delegates from the four local government areas out of five participated and God has favoured us.
“We have work to do, we have less than three weeks to the election and what we need to do is to put our house in order and we have no option than to win this senatorial election and together we will.”
