ANAMBRA 2013: The guber line up. Senator Chris Ngige, last Monday, emerged the candidate of the All Progessives Congress, APC, joining the trio of Tony Nwoye, (PDP); Willie Obiano, (APGA) and Ifeanyi Uba (Labour) as candidates of the major parties in the governorship contest due on November 16. Charles Kumolu who was in Awka for the primaries gives a rundown of the intrigues that shadowed the parties’ primaries. PDP Indeed the state chapter of the PDP, did not failto disappoint those who have for years lookedup to it as a centre of intrigues. Despite the acclaimed agreement by all 15 candidates to abide by the rules put forth by the national party through the Ike Emeakayi led executive, one of the candidates pulled out at the last minute to participate in the primaries conducted by the Chief Ejike Oguebego faction of the party. The mainstream primaries conducted by the Emeakayi faction and supervised by the Governor Ibrahim Shema led team delegated by the national secretariat was originally scheduled to hold at the Alex Ekwueme Squareat 10 am, but did not commence until 5: 45 following a tedious accreditation exercise at the Women Development Centre, WDC. Conducting of primaries While the accreditation was ongoing at WDC, the faction headed by Oguebego, was also conducting its primaries at Emaus House. It was gathered that many of the 1500 delegates from the 326 wards that voted werefinancially enticed by agents of the aspirants. But how many of them succumbed remains anissue especially given that Nwoye, who won the primaries would not be considered the richest or a moneybag in the Anambra sense of estimation of money. Also, delegates had a hectic time entering the venue, as some were refused accreditation for non possession of the party’s membership card. A Director General of the campaign of one of the aspirants, who spoke with Vanguard on condition of anonymity, regretted that eligible delegates were disenfranchised through that process. “Delegates are being stopped because they don’t have party card. That is not supposed to be the criteria. I have never voted with a voter’s card before. Once you are a delegate, it is assumed that you have fulfilled all the needed requirements to participate in the exercise,” he said. However, delegates were later driven in buses to Alex Ekwueme Square for voting at the end of the exhaustive accreditation exercise. Ngige, APC; Obiano, APGA; Nwoye, PDP; Uba, Labour While this was going on, the Oguebego group,whose leadership is believed to be inclined to the Ubas, had commenced voting an hour earlier. Not surprisingly, Senator Andy Uba emerged victorious in the contest that was boycotted by all but one of the 15 aspirants. Nwoye’s victory at the end of the exercise conducted by the team delegated by the national secretariat was shocking to many, especially to those outside the mainstream of the PDP in Anambra State. This was especially so since he was not regarded as one of the money bags in the party and was not known to be among the frontline aspirants. APGA’s coronation party/Maxi Okwu factor While stakeholders were still imagining the developments in the PDP, the outcome of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA primaries confirmed insinuations on the possible role of the incumbency factor in the polls. The APGA primaries which took place two days after the PDP primaries at the WDC turned out to be a coronation exercise of sorts. Before it commenced, there were rumors that three aspirants had stepped down for Obiano. And that however played out when one of the candidates Mr. Patrick Onochie announced thathe was stepping down. An attempt to step down in absentia by one ofthe aspirants was declined by Chief Martins Agbaso, the chairman of the electoral panel. Heinsisted that aspirants could only step down either physically or through a written note. It was therefore, easy to know were the pendulum would swing to, even before the end of the exercise. Though Obiano’s victory did not trigger off feelings of disquietness among the party faithful analysts are still to be convinced that the former banker is rugged enough to trudgethe difficult Anambra political terrain. Chairman the party’s Board of Trustess, BoT, Chief Tim Menakaya, is, however, not one of such skeptics saying in a chat with Vanguard that Obiano is an asset to the party. “His emergence is an asset to the party because he is clean and has got good background. He represents a new dawn. That was why he waselected. He emerged because he will continue the good work the party is doing in Anambra.” to be continued......
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 05:34:30 +0000
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