Crisis has erupted in the Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that had always prided itself in its unity.
Anaedoonline.ng had earlier reported that a former Senator, Andy Uba, had been declared winner of the Anambra governorship primary of the APC held on Saturday.
Officials said Uba defeated 13 other aspirants to emerge as the party’s governorship candidate in the coming November 6 election.
The chairman of the APC primary election panel and governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, announced the outcome of the poll at Golden Tulip Hotel, Agulu Lake, Awka, early on Sunday.
Governor Abiodun said Uba emerged the winner with 230,201 votes while his closest rival, Johnbosco Onunkwo polled a total of 28,746 votes.
But 11 other aspirants had protested against Uba’s victory, leading to calls for the cancelation of the primaries by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige.
Reacting, the Director-General of the Andy Uba campaign organization, Chief Sir Paul Chukwuma, said, “The call for postponement of the primary to a later date by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige (OON) is wrong.
We fault the call and wonder why the Leader of the party in Anambra State will call for a postponement of an election that has ended successfully just because the outcome was not going in favour of his preferred candidate.”
Chukwuma said Ngige’s stand lends credence to the rumours going round that he is in cohort with the ruling APGA to support a weak aspirant to emerge as APC candidate.
He also berated those aspirants that alleged irregularities in the primary election for raising false alarms.
He noted that all the aspirants were given everything they needed by the Primary Election Committee but some were angry that they couldn’t hijack the whole process hence the resort to blackmail and cheap propaganda