Pandemonium on Thursday broke out at the governorship primaries of the Delta State chapter of the All Progressives Congress.
An aspirant in the race, Chief Fidelis Tilije, protested at the venue of the exercise against electoral malpractice by the party.
Tilije was to engage Chief O’tega Emerhor, the former senatorial candidate of the party, who lost to the Peoples Democratic Party, Emmanuel Aguariavwodo, after the death of Senator Pius Ewherido, before trouble erupted.
Tilije, having sensed that he has been shortchanged in the contest, staged a walkout of the venue, Oshimili South Local Government Arcade, with his teeming supporters.
Before now, three aspirants, including Prof. Pat Utomi, the proprietor of a Lagos-based business school, were billed for the exercise.
But Utomi allegedly withdrew.
According to Tilije, instead of the 4,000 accredited delegates for the exercise, over 1,000 were fraudulently removed.
While he vowed to contest the aftermath of the exercise in court against the winner, he described the fraud about to be perpetrated by the party as a “rape of democracy”.
He said: “This is a rape of internal democracy and a daylight robbery.
“The accredited delegates here are not more than 3,000, whereas over 4,000 are supposed to be here.
“Where are the remaining 1,000?
“As you can see again, O’tega is busy campaigning in the venue against the electoral law and no one is challenging him.
“The impunity with which he has lorded himself over the party in the state calls for doubt that the exercise of today can be free, fair and credible.
“I can’t be part of this fraud.
“I will definitely challenge the outcome of exercise in court.”
The party was unperturbed with Tilije’s action.
It continued with the exercise.
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