Disqualified APGA governorship aspirants express mixed feelings over screening • Ubah pledges to lift physically challenged • APC alleges lapses in voter’s register update DISQUALIFIED governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra State have expressed mixed feelings over the outcome of the screening conducted by the party’s panel last week in Abuja. Meanwhile, the governorship aspirant on the platform of the Labour Party (LP), Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah, has pledged to empower and include physically-challenged indigenes in his government if elected. Ubah said his administration would ensure a level playing field for persons with disability to live productive and independent lives, by seeing to the enactment of a law to protect their rights. In a statement issued Tuesday, Ubah, who is the chairman, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, said there is need to establish an agency charged with the responsibility of ensuring that persons with disabilities are not discriminated against in any government project or activity. According to him, “Persons with disabilities will participate in all aspects of my government. They will be given equal opportunities and all the support they need to maximise their potential to become socially, economically and politically useful to themselves and the society.” While some of the APGA’s governorship aspirants, who relived their experiences at the interview, claimed that the process was fair and pledged their loyalty to the party, wishing the candidate victory at the November polls, others expressed some reservations about the conduct of the exercise. One of them, Mr. Emmanuel Nweke, said he could not say anything about the fairness of the process “because what is fair depends on the guidelines of the exercise.” But Nweke said he remained resolute in his loyalty to the party and did not intend to seek platform elsewhere. “I made my appeal where I presented my voter’s card, they saw it and still went ahead to do a blanket disqualification. The matter of fairness does not arise because every organisation, including APGA, has its guidelines, which must be adhered to.” Mr. Oseloka Obaze, the immediate past secretary to Anambra State Government, in a statement, said his disqualification was based on ‘no-voter’s card’, which he promised to make available last Monday but was rejected by the panel. He recalled that he was not resident in Nigeria when the previous voters’ registration took place and did not possess the voter’s card, saying “that was the absolute truth and I said so under oath”. “For me, there was no other way to obtain a card but legally through INEC. The first opportunity to do so in Anambra would have been on Monday, August 19, 2013. The APGA appeal panel did not accede to my request to present the card within the 48 hours’ window”, he stated, linking this development to why he was disqualified. He pledged to remain a loyal party man, promising to work for victory of the party at the forthcoming election. Patrick Obianwu, who emerged one of the successful candidates at the exercise, commended the panel for “carrying out their task objectively and independent of external influence.” He argued that his stand was not because he was successful but that the guidelines were clear and he was sure he met all of them. “The exercise, in my opinion, was well organised. It showed that the party is well focused. The committee was so independent, authoritative and had no regard for cheating and influence, and the members were objective. Their interest bordered on tax clearance, which every aspiring governor must possess, and source(s) of income. You must also be certified as a card-carrying member and registered with INEC and must show that you can shoulder the burden of campaigns and not rely on godfather,” he said. And in Awka yesterday, it was complaints galore as individuals and political parties alleged lapses in the ongoing voter’s register update. Unfortunately all attempts to speak with top officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), including the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukogu in Awka failed. The exercise which entered its second day in the state’s 326 wards and 4608 polling units was smooth in some places while teething problems were recorded in other places. In a reaction, the All Progressives Congress (APC) noted that the worst affected local government areas were Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Ogbaru and Idemili North. According to the party’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Okelo Madukaife, these lapses were more in areas with dense population and stronghold of opposition parties in the state. He said: “Details before us indicate that pages of INEC papers were torn off by unknown persons in Ogidi, Idemili North Council. This was easily done because these booths were unmanned by INEC up till 12 noon in some cases, leading people to act without direction.” He also alleged that the INEC’s data capturing machines and computers sent to Nkpor and Obosi (Idemili LGA) were dysfunctional, leading to prospective voters coming to the centres and returning home without having their data captured as expected.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 05:43:42 +0000
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