| 21 October, 2018 | Ukorebi Esien
The was commotion Saturday, when news came in that some members of the PDP family who where reportedly said to have won the primary elections in their various constituencies and announced as winners and as such flag bearers of the party in the forthcoming House of Assembly elections, having filled the INEC candidacy forms, are now alledgly said to have been swapped over night with other names inserted in their places as the party prepares to submit forms to INEC.
A call to the media aid of Hon. Bette Obi and Barr Ikpi confirmed the rumour to be true. Other sources revealed that reasons for the swap was merely political, as the party had to do a last minute permutation in a bid to cross its T's and dot the I's.
It is said that the opponents of both assembly members affected in this last minute reshuffling seem to be a threat to PDP therefore, the party needed to bring in viable candidate that can match opponents from the APC.
according to one of my sources, "These people are not on ground, they don't have a relationship with their electorate as compared to their opponent and PDP does not want to take chances. You know their candidacy will also affect that of other candidate such as presidential, governorship, and even the National Assembly". The source revealed.
But when Hon. Itam Abang was contacted by TDN, she demissed the matter by saying, "I don't know anything about that o", when asked if she had also heard the report she said, she does not listen to rumours. "I don't know what they are talking , Ukorebi, I am preparing to go to Church". She concluded.
For Hon. Nelson Ofem, he sounded calm and in control as he firmly said "Well, Ukorebi, the governor just asked us to see him on Monday morning, because that thing happened on Friday night. We don't know the details so I can't say anything now. In truth I don't have details. You should get back to me when we would have been done, when the governor should have met with us and then the party to understand what it is. For now the party is one and we need to work together to win our elections".
When the state Party Chairman was contacted he said,
"I am not aware of it, the party is not aware of it, I am not aware, I don't, we don't know anything about that".
When pressed futher he said "I can't even make comments on what I am not aware of, I don't know where they got the infornation from".
TDN correspondent in their usual manner had to painstakingly carry out an extra investigation and fillers have it that there's more to the swapping of names as it is not just about the winning strength of the removed candidates, but their removal from INEC list is not unconnected to the internal politics of the house of Assembly as to who becomes the speaker of the incoming 9th Assembly.
Stay close with us as we publish more revelations concerning this issue.
Ukorebi Esien blogs for TDN, where he tells the Nigerian story, one article at a time, without fear nor favor.
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