The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wednesday said it would challenge the outcome of last Saturday’s governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States in court.
The party’s candidates, Senator Duoye Diri (Bayelsa) and Mr. Musa Wada (Kogi) lost to All Progressives Congress’ (APC) Mr. David Lyon and Governor Yahaya Bello in an election widely reported to have been marred by widespread violence and electoral malpractices.
The party also refuted speculations that it had issues with former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, over the loss in Bayelsa.
Speaking on the outcome of the NWC meeting, the National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “We deliberated on the elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States and the highest level of the party lead by the national chairman, will formally address the world.
“We have not done a post mortem of the election, we have only weighed the circumstances that surrounded the election. We have also looked at the global condemnation of the elections as held on Saturday.
“We have reviewed the role of INEC and the role played by security agencies. Formally the party will come up with a position. But whether we have done anything internally within the party, we have not gotten there.
“We have taken the decision of going to court even long before but beyond that we are going to take other measures which the national chairman will address tomorrow.”
On speculations that some chieftains of the party in Bayelsa state wanted Jonathan sanctioned for his perceived role in the election, Ologbondiyan said the matter was not discussed.
“The issue of President Goodluck Jonathan did not come up at this meeting and it was not discussed,” he said, adding: “You must know about the procedure and processes in our party. If we do not have a report or an issue before us, we cannot delve into it. As we speak now, we do not have any matter concerning President Jonathan before the party”.
On perceived pressure on the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, the PDP spokesperson said: “The National Chairman is not under any pressure except the fact that we believe that democracy is gradually being killed by this government and we believe that as the main opposition party we have a responsibility to salvage democracy. That is the main issue concerning the national chairman, it is not correct. Talking about division within the NWC, all of us are here. Virtually everybody was here and we discussed freely.”
