By Okey Maduforo Awka
Scores of aggrieved stakeholders and members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Oyi local government area of Anambra State on Friday protested the result of the State House of Assembly primary election for the constituency.
The people had taken their protest to the State Governor Prof Charles Soludo at the Light House in Awka the state capital with an appeal to urgently right the wrong done against the incumbent lawmaker representing Oyi constituency in the house, Hon. Innocent Ojike (Ojicam).
They appealed to the governor not to allow the fraudulent activities of those who manipulated the already declared results and victory of Hon. Ojike to destroy the APGA in Oyi LGA.
Spokesperson of the protesters and State Auditor of APGA, Chief Oraegbunam Uchenna said that the results of the State House of Assembly primary election declared in the local government council hall showed clearly that the incumbent lawmaker representing Oyi constituency Hon. Innocent Ojike polled 179 votes while his rival Mr. Kosisochukwu Ibemesi scored 45 votes.
He expressed sadness that two days after the declaration of the actual results, the people were shocked to learnt that the entire outcome of the state Assembly primary election was allegedly manipulated to favour of Mr. Kosisochukwu Ibemesi.
“After the APGA primary election on 23rd of May 2026, the winner of the election was declared in Oyi local government council hall before the Major of the local government and in front of the party chairman of the local government.
Two days after that declaration was made we started going through the declaration of another results. Like in my ward four Nteje community, Hon. Innocent Ojike (Ojicam) scored 179 votes in the House of Assembly election while Kosisochukwu Ibemesi scored 45 votes.”
“But the results of Mr. Ijemesi in the second declaration we saw that in Ward four that it was 425 for Ijemesi whereas the number of accredited voters that day was 230. The accreditation was one and the election of the Senate and House of Representatives could not have been conducted differently.”
“The results their declared in the second list did not reflect the will of our people; where did the results come from ? It’s not the votes our people cast. This is democracy and we must protest our democracy. APGA is a progressive party and we are all progressives and we must do something that’s progressive,” he said.
“Our working governor is doing very well but they have lied to him and told him what’s not real and we are here to tell him as our father and leader about the true state of things in Oyi LGA.”
“Anybody who says that Kosi Ibemesi had 425 votes in ward four Nteje let him provide the evidence of video coverage or documents. Let the Electoral officer who conducted the election should rise up and say something on this issue.”
“We are appealing to the governor to restore the people’s mandate and let the person we voted for win. We don’t want frauddsters and corrupt politicians to spoil APGA for us. They cannot spoil APGA for us. We have laboured a lot to build this party and we have laboured a lot to make this APGA win elections in Nteje and Oyi local government area,” Oraegbunam said.
“We are saying that our mandate should not be stolen; we are not going to get involved in the manipulation of results. Let the will of the people prevail and the truth must stand. They can manipulate every other wards not in my place. I am the state auditor of this party and they can’t get away with it,” he added.
Another Stakeholder of the party, Innocent Nebechi Ugwo PhD (Ifite Nteje ward 5) maintained that, “What we are saying is that we came here to bring to the notice of our dear leader the Governor of Anambra State and National leader of our party that there’s a highly orchestrated electoral fraud that transpired in Oyi constituency.”
Speaking on behalf of Governor Soludo, Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr. Vincent Okechi said that the governor during his address to the party stakeholders insisted that he has no preferred candidate for the election and that everybody should go to the field as the power belongs to the people.
He noted that the contest was a direct primary and the people should cas their votes for their choice candidates.
He urged the protesters to take the right steps by writing to the appropriate authorities or the party hierarchy if they feel aggrieved due the outcome of the process.
He stated that the governor in his wisdom had taken steps to personally address some of the changes arising from the conduct of the primary election across the state.
The Deputy Chief of Staff said that the governor and APGA leadership at all levels are willing and courageous to address the problems and challenges facing the party and its followership at all times.
