APC Torn Apart, Continues To Throw Deadly Blows Over Anambra Gubernatorial Election – Details
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It was confirmed that the Leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has been torn apart over a move to annul the Governorship primaries which produced Dr. Tony Nwoye, as the party’s flag bearer for the November 18 Gubernatorial poll in Anambra State.
It was alleged that the move to upturn the primaries, was based on the infiltration of some influential politicians distributing Ghana Must Go Bags containing N150 million.
Although, the primaries reportedly attracted so many petitions, the only petition in the public domain is that of Senator Andy Uba, who alleged that Nwoye won through the use of thugs and financial inducements.
There were 12 aspirants that contested the APC Governorship ticket, and 4,332 delegates voted in the primaries.
Those unnamed influential politicians, according to sources, had earlier tried to persuade the Chairman of the Election Panel and Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, to do their bidding and impose the aspirant who lost the ticket on the party. Governor Shettima declined and opted for the conduct of a free and fair primary election.
“The Chairman of the election panel politely told those who approached him that he could not be bought with any price and would, therefore, conduct a free election by providing a level-playing field for all the candidates to test their popularity”, a source, who was in the team that conducted the election last month, revealed.
“In fact, when we arrived Awka for the primaries, all of us had expected that a prominent aspirant was going to sweep the polls, because of his influence in politics. But when the results came out, he lost by a wide margin to Nwoye, and we could not change the decision of the electorate for whatever reason”, the source said.
“I can tell you that what is happening, is that some powerful politicians who are more comfortable with the defeated aspirant want him to contest against Governor Willie Obiano with the hope that once he wins, he would return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)”, the source explained.
A party source revealed that some members of the APC National Working Committee, NWC, have been canvassing for the annulment of the primaries, on the ground that Nwoye may not bring the expected victory for the party in the November 18 Governorship election.
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