AGWANANA: BAYELSA PDP PRIMARIES PEACEFUL, PRODUCED CREDIBLE CANDIDATES BY CONSENSUS By Chris Mark 

AGWANANA: BAYELSA PDP PRIMARIES PEACEFUL, PRODUCED CREDIBLE CANDIDATES BY CONSENSUS

By Chris Mark 

Hon. Solomon Agwanana, Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa State, has described the party’s recent primaries as peaceful, transparent, and free of complaints, with candidates emerging by consensus.

Speaking in an interview, on Thursday at the party’s secretariat, Agwanana said those who emerged “were credible, reliable,” and included serving members of the Federal House of Representatives and State Assembly.

“The candidates that emerged were credible, reliable, some tested, tried and some of them are still incumbent serving in the Federal House. State Assembly members that eventually emerged as candidates too are very trustworthy and they have been very supportive,” he said.

He said the candidates “connect well with the grassroots,” and expressed confidence in the outcome “will certainly give us the best of results in the forthcoming election in 2027.”

On the delay in releasing collated results, Agwanana explained: “Because it’s a consensus, most of all our candidates emerged as consensus candidates. It was a rancour-free primary election. That’s why you are not hearing any complaint.”

He described the process as “transparent and it was very free and fair,” noting that panel members from Abuja were collating results and successful candidates would be notified.

Agwanana urged supporters to remain steadfast. “This is a PDP state and PDP has not disappointed them in any form, particularly those that were elected into respective offices. We are appealing to them to be steadfast and ensure that they do the right thing when the time comes for the elections,” he said.

Dismissing reports of a parallel primary, he said: “I do not believe there is a faction. Whatever they are doing, the law does not support what they are doing. The law supports the authentic leadership of the party flowing from national to myself in the state.”

He insisted the exercise conducted by his leadership was supervised by INEC and complied with the law. “In no distant time they will fizzle out because what they are doing is not known to law,” he said.

Agwanana confirmed the presidential primary in Bayelsa would follow the same model. “Presidential certainly would be same mode that we applied today,” he said.