Anxiety In South East APC As Court Nullifies Andy Uba’s participation in Anambra Governorship Poll

metro

4 years ago

Tension is gradually rising in the South East region of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) following the nullification of participation of its candidate, Andy Uba, in the recently concluded Anambra Governorship poll.

This is because the loyalists of the major opposing actors in Anambra and indeed other states in the rehion have started taking positions and reading various interpretations to the judgement.

The major argument now is that with the likely ‘Imo style’ not succeeding as the ‘dependable plank’ seems to be disappointing following the judgement, the ripple effects might spread with the likely negative impact on the fortunes of the party in the region going forward.

Most of the stakeholders say unless urgent steps are taking to resolve internal ranglings and division among actors like Uba and Chris Ngigie, labour minister, among others, the party may be heading for a major implosion that may lead to losing grip even on states presently being controlled by it.

For instance, the chairman-elect of the party in Enugu State, Comrade Adolphus Ude,

in a statement made available to journalists in Enugu said the court’s decision should serve as a wake-up call for the party in the South-East.
While describing the development as embarrassing, he noted that “more of such things may happen in the future if the leaders of the party in the zone did not sit up and take up the responsibility of rebuilding the party.”

The Enugu chairman-elect said it was said that a ruling at the national level could end up with such a disastrous outing in a governorship election “owing to error of a few people who do not want the right thing to be done.”

He called on all the leaders of the party in the zone “to as a matter of urgency convene a peace rally where all agitating issues shall be resolved.

“This is not to be left for the governors on the platform of the party in the zone or the national working committee. The stakeholders in each of the five states should meet urgently and find a lasting solution to the crisis plaguing the APC in the South-East zone.

“I urge them not to sit down and watch the party drift further ahead of the 2023 elections. If swift measures are not taken, what awaits the party in future elections may be worse than the Anambra experience.

“We have the likes of Emperor Baywood Ibe, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, Dr. Ben Nwoye, Sen. Chris Ngige, George Moghalu, Sen. Ucha, Ogbonnia Onu, Osita Izunaso, and a host of others should team up and resolve this imbroglio,” Ude advised.
It was also gathered that all is still not well among the governors over the agitation for presidential candidate of igbo extraction as the needed unity of purpose is still lavking.

Apart from the fact that the major stakeholders have not been able to come out with a concensus candidate, differences along party lines are other sources of disagreements.

This is even as some of the serving and ex-leaders in the region that decamped to various parties are in a fix over the next line of action, since their aspirations are dashed on the ulter of zoning by, particularly, the major two political parties, APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgment on Monday, held that Uba was never a candidate in the election having emerged from an illegally conducted primary election by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The judge held that the plaintiff, George Moghalu, succeeded in proving that the APC did not conduct a valid primary election from which Uba claimed to have emerged as the party’s candidate.
The judge ordered INEC to delete Uba from its record as a candidate in the election.
He then ordered the APC to refund to the plaintiff the N22,500.000 he paid for expression of interest and nomination forms since the party failed to conduct a valid primary.