Anambra 2013: Double candidacy unsettles APGA

It is not yet through for the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) ahead of the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State following the emergence of Dr. Chike Obidigbo as another candidate of the party last week. Obidigbo had earlier been disqualified by the APGA Screening Committee, along with Professor Charles Soludo, Prince Chinedu Idigo and the secretary to the State Government, Mr. Oseloka Obaze, before the party conducted the primary election.

Shortly after the emergence of Chief William Obiano, a late entrant to the race, as APGA candidate, factional National Chairman of the party, Barr Maxi Okwu, who had obtained a court pronouncement re-affirming him as chairman, conducted his primaries, leading to the emergence of Dr. Chike Obidigbo. Ever since, some party members are at sea over who their governorship candidate is and currently, most of the aggrieved supporters of disqualified aspirants have pitched their tents with Obidigbo in a bid to ensure that Obiano is frustrated during the election.
A factional state chairman of APGA, Chief Mike Kwentoh, told Saturday Independent that Obidigbo’s emergence is a non-issue, contending that very soon, Anambra people would know who the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recognises as the gubernatorial candidates of the party. “It is laughable that someone somewhere is parading himself as the governorship candidate of APGA and if we begin to comment on it, he will become important. As far as I am concerned it is a non-issue. In fact, it is not an issue at all. Very soon INEC will make public who is APGA’s governorship candidate in Anambra State,” Kwentoh said. But Dr. Chike Obidigbo dismissed Kwentoh’s claims, contending that William Obiano’s ticket would spell doom for not only APGA as a political party but for the entire Igbo race, adding that going by what he called the charade that produced Obiano, APGA needs to be redeemed through ensuring free, fair and peaceful democratic process, which according to him, produced him as candidate. “I don’t have anything against Mr. Willie Obiano; he is like a brother and well qualified to be governor but we believe that his way of entry was faulty and done in bad faith. And if allowed, will continue the cycle of godfatherism, which Anambra people have sworn will not happen again. It is the decision of Ndi Anambra that a sitting governor should complete his tenure and allow another person with a free mind to take over instead of imposing a candidate,’ Obidigbo said.
Also, two more gubernatorial aspirants of APGA, who felt shortchanged by the process, are currently meeting with some chieftains of the Labour Party in a bid to collapse their structures into the Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah Campaign Organization.
In a swift reaction to the issue of APGA’s double candidacy, the state Chairman of the Labour Party, Mr. Sam Oraegbunam, told Saturday Independent that APGA is trying to act a script similar to that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), adding that the same fate threatening the PDP may befall APGA if the party continues in its crisis.
He said: “What is happening is similar to that show of shame in the PDP and I know that APGA wants to use two candidates that would campaign for them and later they will choose one person as the winner. We are looking at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make their pronouncement and we shall not take kindly to what APGA is doing. They know that Obiano is not even popular in his community, let alone in Anambra State. So they want to use another person to assist him. There is no faction in APGA; what is happening is just a plan by both the governor and Maxi Okwu to deceive Anambra people and we shall fight it to the end.”
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Director of Communication Senator Chris Ngige Campaign Organisation, Chief Charles Amito, told Saturday Independent that APGA’s plot will not work, adding that APC would use all legal means to stop it. “We are all aware of the antics of Mr. Peter Obi’s APGA and we know that they want to cause confusion in the election just like the PDP but we in APC are democrats.”



Source: Daily Independent