The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State on Saturday held primary election to elect a governorship candidate that will represent it on November 6, for the governorship election of the state. The exercise however turned a rancorous one with some aspirants already crying blue murder.

The election which was conducted by Ogun State governor, Prince Abiodun Dapo announced Senator Andy Uba as the winner of the election. He defeated 13 other aspirants to emerge the party’s governorship candidate. He contested the election with 13 other aspirants including; Dr. Chidozie Nwankwo, George Moghalu, Paul Orajiaka, Geoff Onyejeagbu, Azuka Okwuosa, Nwokafor Daniel, Ikoobasi Mokelu, Igwebuike Ifeanyi, Godwin Okonkwo, Ben Etiaba, Onuwkwo John Bosco, Edozie Madu, and Maxwell Okoye.

The chairman of the APC primary election panel and governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, announced the outcome of the poll at Golden Tulip Hotel, Agulu Lake, early on Sunday. Uba emerged winner with 230,201 votes while his closest rival, Johnbosco Onunkwo polled a total of 28,746 votes. The total vote cast was 348, 490 during the election. The election committee adopted the open ballot mode also known as Option A4 to conduct the primary election.

Meanwhile, long before the announcement of the result, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige raised concerns over the conduct of the election. He said that at about 4:25p.m on Saturday, the election was yet to commence in the 326 wards of the 21 councils in the state. He therefore, called for the postponement of the primary election to Tuesday, June 29. The minister said that the postponement of the primary election became imperative to enable the party members across the state to participate, as well as give enough room for the committee members to resolve contentious issues raised by the aspirants.

A statement issued by Senator Chris Ngige Media Office at Alor, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, yesterday, said that the minister who is also the leader of the party in the state, has already made his position known to the Chairman of the Primary Committee for the Anambra State Governorship election and the governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun. Ngige said he sent a message to Governor Abiodun in protest. The message which was made available to journalists read: “Your Excellency, Prince Dapo Abiodun, the Chairman of the Anambra State Primary Committee, good day. As I write you now, 4:25p.m, Saturday, 26th June, I’m in my home town, Alor with two electoral wards and there is no sign of any governorship primary election. My inquiries and investigation show that the story is the same all around the 326 wards of the 21 local government areas in the state. As a result, most party members have left for home, having waited since 8:00a.m. I discussed with your member, Distinguished Senator Ken Nnamani and I’ll advise you call the panel members to shift the exercise to Tuesday, June 29th to also enable you tidy up some issues raised by aspirants.”

In reply to Ngige’s protest of rigging and suggestion for a reschedule, Uba has denied rigging the election, saying that the call for the reschedule of the election shows that he is against a transparent process. Director-General of the Andy Uba campaign organization, Chief Sir Paul Chukwuma who spoke on his behalf praised the doggedness of APC members who remained patient all through the process.

He 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.” According to Chukwuma, this stand by Dr. Chris Ngige 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 in order to pave way for the APGA governorship candidate to have a smooth run. Chukwuma, 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.

Though the Dapo Abiodun led committee has concluded its job and left the state, leaving Andy Uba’a supporters in jubilation, there is a groundswell of protest by aspirants of the party. 10 governorship aspirants of the party have reiterated their rejection of the result of Saturday’s primary election which produced Sen. Andy Uba as winner. The aspirants who briefed journalists in Awka on Sunday evening after a closed door meeting said no election held in the state on Saturday, while also describing the election result published by the Ogun State governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun as Facebook result.

The aspirants include; Dr Chidozie Nwankwo, Dr Hygers Igwebuike, Pastor Godwin Okonkwo, Chief Ben Etiaba, Mr Johnbosco Onunkwo, Dr Paul Orajiaka, Azuka Okwuosa, George Moughalu and Col Geoff Onyejegbu. One of the aspirants, Dr George Muoghalu, who spoke on behalf of others said: “There was no election in Anambra State on Saturday. Opportunity was not provided for our people to choose who they desire to represent them in the forthcoming election. Whatever you do in the primary election has a way of affecting the main election, and with what happened on Saturday, we are not sure what we are heading for. We are here because an election did not hold and a governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun came out to announce a result and expects us to accept it. We are here to tell you that election did not happen anywhere in the state.

“You all will agree with me that we have been here in the last six months building support bases in the state and meeting our party members, and at the end, election did not hold. They started distribution at over 3pm and in some places 6pm, and you know what that means because arrangements for electricity and security was not made, so how will people comene out to vote. The result Governor Abiodun announced is Facebook result. We are asking for free fair and credible primary, but if it must be by consensus, then it must be with our agreement, not imposing someone on us. We are going to report to the president, he needs to know that there was no election in the state. There will be consequences if the NEC of our party refuses to listen to us. Election did not take place anywhere in Anambra except Governor Dapo Abiodun wants to tell us that the election was held in someone bedroom,” Moughalu said.

A lawyer and political analyst, Barr Anthony Agbasiere who spoke to THISDAY said the manipulation of process could cost the APC the opportunity to produce the governor in Anambra State. Agbasiere said, “One family can not be causing trouble in Anambra State. In PDP you can see what his brother did. He conducted a primary election that produced his brother and here in APC, Andy has disrupted a primary election of his party. I’m not a member of the APC, but if you ask me I will say there was nothing like election yesterday. Andy Ubah highjacked the process. If you thing that you are popular, why not allow the election to hold, so that you can test your popularity. I want to advice the party to discard this primary and conduct something credible, I know they still have time within one timeframe. If they use this primary election result to go into the Governorship election, I can bet you that they will lose.”

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Dr George Muoghalu, who spoke on behalf of others said: “There was no election in Anambra State on Saturday. Opportunity was not provided for our people to choose who they desire to represent them in the forthcoming election. Whatever you do in the primary election has a way of affecting the main election, and with what happened on Saturday, we are not sure what we are heading for. We are here because an election did not hold and a governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun came out to announce a result and expects us to accept it. We are here to tell you that election did not happen anywhere in the state. You all will agree with me that we have been here in the last six months building support bases in the state and meeting our party members, and at the end, election did not hold. They started distribution at over 3pm and in some places 6pm, and you know what that means because arrangements for electricity and security was not made, so how will people comene out to vote. The result Governor Abiodun announced is Facebook result. We are asking for free fair and credible primary, but if it must be by consensus, then it must be with our agreement, not imposing someone on us