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As a fallout from the recently held All Progressives Congress (APC) primary in Anambra State, two aggrieved aspirants have emerged candidates in other political parties.
Pointblanknews.com reports that 11 aggrieved governorship aspirants expressed disaffection with the process that threw up Sen Andy Uba as the party’s flagbearer in the state.
Checks further revealed that a third aspirant is also at the verge of leaving the party to consolidate his deal with another party where he hopes to actualize his ambition.
Pointblanknews.com reports that Col. Geoff Onyejegbu (retd), has picked the governorship ticket of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) while Chidozie Nwankwo is now candidate of African Action Congress (AAC) for the November 6 epic event.
The third in the league, Ben Etiaba is speculated to be having a deal with Social Democratic Party (SDP), where he hopes to realise his dream.
Their defection is a fallout of the unresolved post-primary protests that trailed the candidature of Andy Uba as the the APC candidate for the state.
Recall that 11 aspirants including the trio had protested Uba’s candidacy while the Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr. George Moghalu went a step further by taking legal measure.
Moghalu in the suit filed on July 8, 2021 by his lawyer, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), is praying the court to compel the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delist the name of Uba and APC from among the list of political parties and governorship candidates for the November 6 election or any subsequent postponement.
Moghalu, who was among 14 aspirants who purchased forms to contest for the governorship election, equally urged the court to declare that the party failed to conduct a “valid primary election’’ in line with the provisions of the constitution, the Electoral Act as well as the APC’s constitution and guidelines for election, demanding the sum of N122.5 million damages from the ruling party.
Now with the exit of the Onyejegbu and Nwankwo, the remaining eight have resolved to remain with the party to pursue their agitation to a logical conclusion even as they expressed reservation with what they described as the slow pace at which the national leadership of the party is going with the case.
“We are not leaving the party for now. But it is rather annoying and very unfortunate that the national leadership of our party could not do anything reasonable to resolve our complaint. We tried to agree on a consensus candidate but the party is not forthcoming in implementing that resolution. We have also held series of meeting with many APC governors but no solution has been implemented. That must have necessitated the decision of Moghalu to institute legal action against the sham called party primary conducted in Awka in June.
“Yes, I can confirm to you that while eight of us have resolved to continue the struggle, two of us, Geoff and Nwankwo have been confirmed to have joined other parties while the third, Ben Etiaba’s proposed movement to SDP is still in the realm of speculation,” one of the aggrieved aspiran