Anambra guber: Andy Ubah, 8 aspirants want Nwoye’s victory cancelled

Controversy and uncertainty are now trailing the results of the Anambra State All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election held on August 26, 2017 which was won by Hon Tony Nwoye, one of the 12 governorship aspirants.

Though Nwoye defeated Sen. Andy Uba, George Moghalu and nine other aspirants with wide margin, series of petitions of alleged irregularities have been filed by Ubah and other aspirants while the development prompted the party to set up election committee on the matter.

Eight other defeated aspirants in the primary election called for the cancellation of the result of the election at the party Secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday.

It was gathered on Wednesday that the aggrieved aspirants were demanding the repeat of the exercise, alleging that Tony Nwoye, during the primary “brought thugs made up of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) members into the accreditation venue to chase away delegates”.

Speaking with newsmen at the party’s national secretariat while submitting the reports of the panel to the APC National Organising Secretary, Osita Izunaso, the committee secretary, Dr. Nosa Aladeselu, confirmed that the committee actually received a number of petitions against Hon. Tony Nwoye’s victory.

He said: “A number of persons submitted petitions and also a good number representing our party members from Anambra State also made personal appearances. We also have situations where some groups that did not come, submitted affidavit of their understanding of the processes they observed to the committee.

“What we have in this report was a collection of those complaints and responses. After reviewing the petitions from our members at the primaries, we also invited persons, officials and other stakeholders indicted by the petitioners and key persons whose responses were key to our reports, also attended to and heard their witnesses.

“What we have in the report are the analysis of the petition, our understanding of the witnesses we received and our recommendations to the NWC to decide on the final outcome in their own wisdom”.

Meanwhile, one of the aspirants in the primary election, Barrister Nonso Madu, contrary to Andy Uba and other aggrieved aspirants has faulted the alleged claims.

Madu, in a statement he personally signed, said: “This is not true as the accreditation was conducted peacefully. Delegates were identified through the following means- Permanent voter’s card (PVC), National ID card, driver’s licence and International passport. They also came with their party membership cards with photograph issued to them by the party during registration office.

“The party had already made the delegates list available to all aspirants 2 weeks before the day of the primary. With the delegates known, there was little room for manipulation”, Madu said.

“The Nigerian Police Force led by Anambra State Police Commissioner, Umar Garba; the DSS and other security agencies provided adequate security at the accreditation venue, making it nearly impossible for the venue to be infiltrated by thugs. Our dear Senator Andy Uba even attested to this during his interview with pressmen at the accreditation venue.

“The allegation that delegates were swapped is simply laughable. After accreditation, delegates were conveyed to the voting center in marked buses with full police escort. There was no room for any maneuver as the delegates had no physical contacts with outsiders”, he added.