nigerianfolks » News Related To Nigeria » Blame Ogbulafor for Soludo’s loss

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, has been blamed for the loss of the party in the Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra State. The PDP said that if Ogbulafor and members of his National Working Committee had not imposed the party’s candidate, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, on the party, it would not have recorded the poor outing in the election. The Publicity Secretary of the court reinstated executive, Mr. Afam Ilounoh, stated this during a telephone interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday. He added that the party would record more losses in future elections if Ogbulafor was not removed as the chairman of the party. Ilounoh said that the party in the state cried to no avail that since Soludo was not known in the state, it was wrong to have imposed him on the party. He also said that members of the party in the state would not have felt aggrieved if Soludo had emerged through normal process.

He said, “The imposition of Soludo by Ogbulafor was political suicide. We said several times that Soludo was not the solution but Ogbulafor and people like him who wanted to destroy the party did not listen.

“There was no unity among the members of the party. We saw the defeat coming and that was why for a very long time, we were contesting the candidature of Soludo.

“Of course, like a dog destined for destruction, the party’s leadership did not listen to the voice of reasoning. We told them that Soludo was not a member of the party; he was not known even in his village; he has not done anything for the party in the state before and so on.

“To make things worse, when they claimed that they had dissolved the party executive in the state, they went ahead to bring somebody from Enugu to come and lead his campaign.

“That is another insult to the people of this state because what you are saying is that there is no credible person among all the members of the party in this state that is capable of leading the party.

“Ogbulafor had forgotten that when you are going to war, you do not go with a divided house otherwise, the enemy will make nonsense of your team. This is what happened in Anambra State.

“With the connivance of Ogbulafor, Soludo himself ignored people on the ground here. If the chairman is not removed now, more havoc is coming because he will replicate what he did here in several other states come 2011.

“It was a sad adventure on his part and that of Soludo.”

But Ogbulafor has denied being responsible for the party’s loss in the governorship election.

According to him, the PDP picked Soludo as its candidate on the grounds that he was the most qualified candidate of all the 47 aspirants.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Rufai Alkali, who spoke on behalf of Ogbulafor, told our correspondent in a telephone interview on Sunday, that the party was at a loss on what was responsible for the loss.

The party, he said, was shocked that it could still lose the election despite what it did to win.

The party which described the defeat of its candidate, Soludo by the incumbent Peter Obi as very very unfortunate, said it would study the entire process and come up with a party’s position.

The party accused the Anambra PDP members who were still aggrieved of their refusal to put their house in order and support the party’s candidate.

He added that what happened in Anambra and the defeat of the party would serve as an eye opener to all PDP members in all the states of the country that the time had come for them to work together as a formidable party.

He said, “It is very unfortunate that our party lost in Anambra State, a PDP state, our people in Anambra State refused to put their house in order to support the party’s candidate, Prof. Soludo.

“As a party, we did everything possible to ensure that we had a peaceful and fair election. All the efforts, time and energy have been wasted. Though many people were disenfranchised, we will study the entire process and come up with our position.

“What happened in Anambra is an eye opener to all PDP members that it is time to unite. Soludo, our members in the state should be calm and strategise for the challenges ahead.”

Asked if the party would contest the election at the tribunal, he said that would be decided at a later date, adding that the party’s leadership would be waiting for the details of the election.

He called on members of the party in the state to remain calm.

Asked what would now happen to the party in the state ahead of the 2011 election when there would be election into the state House of Assembly, he said members of the state executive party would rebuild the party.

Source: Punch