All Progressives Congress (APC) Ebonyi State yesterday produced two governorship candidates for the 2023 general election.
The candidates are the immediate past Chairman Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Elias Mbam and the embattled Speaker of the House of Assembly, Francis Nwifuru.
The two emerged through parallel congresses of the party.
The factions are Governor David Umahi’s group and Elias Mbam’s team otherwise known as Old APC.
The two factions held the primaries at different locations in Abakaiki, the state capital.
The Mbam faction used direct primaries and conducted its congress at the Mbam Campaign Office, Abakaiki while the Umahi faction used indirect primaries at the Pa Oruta Ngele Township Stadium.
While Mbam scored 741 votes in his factional primary, Nwifuru polled 743 votes in the other faction’s exercise.
Egwu Akanu Otuu announced Mbam the winner of the Mbam factional primarywhile Prof Emmanuel Kehinde announced Nwifuru the winner of the Umahi faction primary.
Exercise a sham, says Senator
A governorship aspirant in the APC, Senator Julius Ali Ucha, rejected the governorship primary election.
According to the aspirant, the exercise could be described as a celebrated fraud.
He called on the leadership of the party to annul it.
His agent, Mr Iziriga Raymond, who spoke to our correspondent, said his boss would never be part of an exercise that was riddled with irregularities.
He said: “I’m not satisfied with the process. The primaries held at PA Ngele Oruta Township Stadium Abakaliki started very well. I mean it was orderly.
“They began with Abakaliki Local Government Area and everything was smooth until the government officials started manipulating the entire process.”
Senator Ucha said he was perturbed that the said primary election, which according to him, was fraught with anti-democratic tendencies, took place under the watch of a sitting governor.
Describing the process as non-transparent, the aspirant called on the national leadership of the APC to jettison the exercise.
Chairman of the party in the state, Chief Stanley Okoro-Emegha, denied the allegation, saying it was baseless.
Two arrested for ‘refusing to step down’
The police arrested two sons of the founding father of Ebonyi State, the late Senator Office Nwali at an APC primaries venue.
It was gathered that the duo, Rollins Offia Nwali and his brother, Alfred Offia Nwali were arrested at Onueke in Ezza South Local Government Area.
Mr Rollins Offia Nwali, a lawyer, is an aspirant in the APC House of Assembly primaries.
He was contesting for Ezza South State Constituency seat.
A source said they were arrested at the venue of the primaries in Onueke, headquarters of the local government.
The source alleged that Mr Offia Nwali was arrested for refusing to step down for his opponent in the election.
The police spokesperson in the state, Chris Anyanwu, could not be reached for comments as his phone lines were switched off at the time of filing this report.
