Okorie faults Onu’s claims he was foisted on Ebonyi PDP

Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ebonyi State chapter, Mr. Tochukwu Okorie, has debunked claims that he was foisted on the party through an undemocratic process.

Okorie was reacting, yesterday, to a petition to the PDP Congress Appeal Committee by one of the contestants for the chairmanship position in the congress held two Saturdays ago in Abakaliki, Silas Onu, who alleged that he failed to meet the minimum requirements for nomination.
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Onu also accused the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) of giving Okorie a nomination form for free, which, according to him, was contrary to the guidelines that stipulate that an aspirant must purchase a form for N750,000.

He further claimed that Okorie failed to meet the party’s deadline for the purchase and submission of forms, alleging that the party had a preset template for his emergence as the chairman in Ebonyi.

But the accused said there was no iota of truth in the claims, urging the committee and the general public to disregard them as frivolous and baseless.
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Presenting copies of receipts of his nomination form, which were submitted at Wadata House in Abuja as proof before journalists, yesterday, in Abakaliki, Okorie said: “I duly purchased my form within the allowed timeframe, contrary to Onu’s claims.”

These are copies of the documents as attached below and they show that I bought my nomination form for N750,000 as prescribed by the party’s guidelines on September 6, 2021, ahead of the revised deadline of September 9, 2021. Submission date as seen from the duly acknowledged copy of the form was October 4, 2021, being the first business day following the national holiday of Friday, October 1, 2021, which should have been the deadline.

“Other documents to prove my claims and attached herewith include a financial waiver granted to candidates in Ebonyi by the NWC of PDP – allowing them to obtain forms without paying.”
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According to him, Onu, who made blunders by making wild claims in the media, has been a hardworking party man; hence he urged him to retrace his steps. “He should come back home and the newly elected Executive Committee of PDP in the state to rebuild the party.”

A chieftain of the PDP in Ebonyi State and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim, affirmed Okorie’s position, saying the party was currently repositioned to retake the state come 2023.
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