By Great Osibe, Awka
Loading ...There is flexing of muscles in the All Progressives Congress as high wire intrigues rule the moment arising from plans to replace the winner of the August 26, 2017 Gubernatorial Primary of the Party, Tone Nwoye with the loser of the contest, Senator Andy Uba.
Already, the Appeal Panel has been inundated with seemingly induced petitions from some interest serving groups, kicking against the emergence of Nwoye as the APC’s flag bearer in the November 18, 2017 governorship poll.
A Total number of delegates accredited for the APC Primary was 4,458, total votes cast 4,333, while 4302 were adjudged valid, with 31 votes standing as invalid.
Nwoye polled a grand total of 2,146 votes to beat his closest rival, Uba who scored 931 votes. He replicated the feat he made in 2013 when he secured the PDP ticket at Uba’s expense.
The scores of the other aspirants of the party were as follows; George Muoghalu – 525; Bart Nwibe – 414; Paul Chukwuma – 110; Johnbosco Onunkwo – 85; Chike Obidigbo – 22; Nonso Madu -, 21; Patrick Nwike – 20; Obinna Uzoh – 7; Donatus Okonkwo – 10; and the only female contestant, Kate Uchegbu who scored one vote.
Declaring Nwoye as the winner, the Chief Returning Officer, and Governor of Borno, Kashim Shettima described it as the easiest and smoothest exercise he had ever witnessed. “We did our work the best way we could by avoiding the major actors of the election, and I can tell you that I do not know him, and even if you bring him here I do not still know him. He declared the primary as the freest and peaceful he had ever witnessed, with the present of over 2000 security personnel.
Few days after the populist emergence of Nwoye, seeming induced petitions from emergent political interest groups and Senator Uba flooded the Appeal Committee of the APC
Tony Nwoye, who won the primary election held in Anambra state on the 26th of August 2017 with an overwhelming margin of about 2000 votes, followed by Uba, who placed a distant second with 931 votes.
But, according to sources, President Buhari may have escalated the escalating worsening misfortunes of APC, with his alleged backing of Senator Uba to replace Nwoye, who is presently the member of House of Representatives for Anambra East and West Federal Constituency and supposedly the best candidate to give the incumbent governor, Chief Willie Obiano a hot contest.
Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU) and Ohazaeze Ndigbo have endorsed the clamour for Anambra North to complete its second term, started by the incumbent governor Obiano.
Some of those who are against Nwoye’s flag are known as ‘Abuja Forces’ comprising of some members of the National Assembly and money-bags who believe Nwoye can not be dictated for, and have a no-nonsense billionaire business man and oil mogul, Prince Arthur Eze as his godfather.
There is palpable security angle to it as a Nwoye Governorship slot may receive the tumultuous backing of youths who want Biafra at all cost.
In 2014, Nwoye emerged as the flag bearer of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the party structure was used to truncate his bid, similar to what is playing out in APC.
It was gathered that PMB’s support for Uba may not be unconnected with the position of Uba’s father, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is standing on the fence regarding Buhari’s second term bid.
Notably, Obasanjo had ;last week stated that he was yet to take a position on the ambition of President Buhari to succeed himself in 2019 regardless of the fact that he had stayed on sick bed for the greater part of his already spent 28 months in office.
By endorsing Uba from the back scene, Buhari is believed to activate Obasanjo’s interest for his second term Presidential bid.
Notably, Uba served President Obasanjo for eight years in Aso Rock, a position that his folks men described as self-serving and was rewarded with the 12-day tenure as governor of Anambra State in 2007. when the Supreme Court sacked him from office and restored Peter Obi’s full tenure.
The bid by Senator Uba to occupy Anambra State Government House even while his tenure as the Senator representing Anambra South Zone is still running is part of the Obasanjo’s unfulfilled promise to his godson.
By backing Uba, it is perceived that Buhari is working towards softening grounds for his re-election, which is currently generating controversy and opposition given the obvious under-performance of his administration in 26 months of its control of power, and worst hardship that cut across the divide of the haves and haves-not.
