October 27, (THEWILL) – Ahead of the 30th and 31st Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) national convention, the chairman, accreditation sub-committee and governor of Delta state, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, has said states where there were court orders on conflicting delegates would be removed from the accreditation list and barred from participating.
Okowa, who disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday, also said the committee is putting everything together to ensure a hitch-free convention that is expected to be attended by over 3,000 delegates.
The governor confirmed that some states were in court over conflicting delegates list and assured that all issues would be resolved amicably.
“We are also trying to look at all the issues, including some people trying to stop some delegates at the court. But I think we are on top of all that, we will handle it and at the end of the day, by Thursday we will have the total accredited number of delegates. So I will give you the number of delegates when we meet on Friday morning.
“We are not worried about what is going on, we always have a way of resolving our issues and God is always with us. You can see that most of the positions and aspirants are unopposed. So that shows you that the party is on course for a successful National Convention”, he added.
Answering questions on the delegates’ list, he said, “Delegates know themselves. There are no issues concerning delegates’ election. But in about one or two states we still have issues, people contending in court as to whether some elected officials at the state, whether they should be there. There is one in Ekiti state and one other state. The legal adviser will before the end of the day offer his advice on it so that we will know what to do. So I don’t think we will have any issue with that.
“We may likely not have conflicting delegates, but wherever we think that there is a court order, we have no choice than to exit those delegates. Except for the statutory delegates who by their right and positions held in the past are not by reasons of election are supposed to be delegates.”
Okowa said the accreditation sub-committee is critical to the national convention.
“Our convention holds from Saturday 30th to Sunday 31st October, which is just 4 days away from today. And we do realise that if we get the process of accreditation right, we will largely have gotten the convention right. And we do not pray that we get it wrong.
“Saturday is very critical to all us. We need to understand our role, we need to come early and hope that every material that will be needed will be available at that point in time,” he said.
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