Anambra: Obaze Guber Aspiration Suffers Setback As PDP Faction Adopts Obiano
The governorship aspiration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer in the November 18 Anambra election, Thursday suffered setback following the adoption of Governor Willie Obiano by a PDP faction led by suspended chairman of the party, Prince Ken Emeakayi.
Emeakayi, had in a previous rally, issued a five-day ultimatum to the party’s national chairman, Ahmed Makarfi to substitute Mr Oseloka Obaze as the party’s candidate or risk the faction’s withdrawal of its support for him (Obaze) who he said was not a registered member of the party.
Addressing newsmen after a rally of party supporters to adopt Obiano as their candidate at the Women’s Development Centre, Emeakayi stated that the need to take a stand was necessary in view of the expiration of the ultimatum.
“We are officially adopting the candidate of the APGA, Chief Willie Obiano as our candidate for the Anambra governorship election. We took into cognisance the fact that in the 2011 and 2015 presidential election respectively, the APGA adopted the PDP candidate, Jonathan as their candidate.
“Today is payback time, and we have decided that we are adopting the APGA candidate as our candidate. This is because the candidate PDP is fielding is not a legitimate candidate. He is not a member of our party, his name is not in our register and he knows that.
“What our action means is not that we are leaving PDP. We still remain PDP, just the same way APGA members who supported our presidential candidate did not leave their party.
“We will for the purposes of this election work for APGA, we will run a separate campaign in all the communities in Anambra State, and we will ensure that APGA wins the election. We believe that Anambra is not broke, and there is no need to mend it,” he said.
The embattled chairman, who hinted that his team consulted widely before arriving at this decision, described support to Obaze as efforts in futility, as he would surely be removed if he eventually wins.
“He was at the Secretariat of the party on 22nd June, 2017, and the chairman of his ward and local government confirmed to us in his presence that his (Obaze’s) name was not in the membership register.
“He promised to go and register, and I have here a text message he sent to me, thanking us for hosting him, but expressing reservations about his membership status being discussed in the open.
“After promising to register, he did not. The next thing I heard was that he and his godfather went to Abuja, and the thing we heard was that our executive has been dissolved,” he added.
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Source: Daily Trust
