Senator Seriake Dickson, national leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has sympathised with aspirants who faced irregularities in the party’s recent primaries while defending the young party’s performance under tight timelines.
In a statement issued on Thursday following an Arise TV interview, Dickson acknowledged challenges in the process but called for understanding given the party’s infancy.
“We are just four months old and have been thrown into the middle of a very tight electoral timeframe, within which we had to carry out membership registration, congresses up to the national convention, primaries up to the national convention, appeal processes, and now the reconciliation phase,” he said.
He blamed compulsory direct primaries imposed by the Electoral Act for widespread irregularities across parties, noting that even much older parties like the APC and the two-year-old ADC faced similar complaints.
“As a matter of fact, considering the age of the NDC and the teeming number of aspirants we have had to manage, we have done quite well,” Dickson added.
The former Bayelsa governor clarified that no official results have been announced and urged the public to disregard unverified claims circulating on social media.
He announced that the party’s second NEC meeting approved a National Reconciliation Committee to address grievances.
Dickson also assured members that the next primaries would be technologically driven to eliminate current shortcomings.
He called for unity and full support for the party’s presidential ticket of Peter Obi and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, urging stakeholders who managed the primaries to lead the reconciliation efforts.
“This is our first set of primaries, and it will also be the last to be conducted manually,” he stated.
