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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has directed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State to conduct a fresh primary election in the next 14 days to replace its governorship candidate, Professor Uche Eleazar Ikonne, who died yesterday in Abuja.

A statement from Ikonne’s family said he died of “multiple cardiac arrests”.

In directing PDP to replace its governorship candidate, INEC clarified that the deputy governorship candidate of the party could not automatically assume the position of the gubernatorial candidate since the election was yet to start.

INEC National Commissioner on Voter Education and Publicity, Festus Okoye, told THISDAY that the party had the opportunity of conducting a fresh primary within 14 days, according to the dictates of the Electoral Act.