Guber poll: Anambra people tired of godfatherism, says UPP

The United Progressives Party, UPP, said on Tuesday that the people of Anambra State have suffered from the debilitating effect of godfatherism.

as well as the damage done to their development by political merchants.
The UPP warned therefore that the Anambra State of 2017 is not available for retirees to come and assume governorship positions only to beef-up their retirement benefits to the detriment of the State’s development and growth.

The party said this in a statement yesterday in reaction to an article entitled “Osita Chidoka’s Political Opportunism”, Written by a former Commissioner for Information in Edo State, Prince Kassim Afegbua.

In the statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of UPP, Chief
Ogbuehi Dike and made available to Journalists in Abuja, the party expressed its displeasure at what it called the unprovoked attack from the former Commissioner and one time Chief Press Secretary to the immediate past Governor of EdoState, Comrade Adams Oshiomole.

The UPP noted with sadness that, “Prince Afegbua obviously set out to carry out a hatchet job in his attempt to diminish the highly rated governorship candidate of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Chief Osita Chidoka who towers head and shoulder above the candidates of other political parties including Prince Afegbua’s All Progressives Congress, APC’s candidate whose emergence remains in messy controversy even as Prince Afegbua was throwing stones from an obvious glass house, hiding under his regular column in the New Telegraph newspaper which does not in any way cover his obvious partisan irredentism.

“In spite of the distractions from the likes of Prince Afegbua, the UPP and Chief Osita Chidoka remain focused and have since mounted the most robust grassroots based campaign to win the election convincingly.

“The good people of Anambra State have suffered from the debilitating effect of godfatherism. They have also suffered from the damage done to their development by political merchants.

“Anambra State of 2017 is not available for retirees to come and assume governorship positions only to beef-up their retirement benefits to the detriment of the State’s development and growth.

“We do not mind to be criticized, after all, we are at the moment an opposition party both at national level and state level. But criticism must be made of sterner stuff devoid of malice”, the party said.

The UPP noted that If there are political opportunists for the Anambra State November 18 governorship election, they will be located in Anambra State Chapter of the APC where over eighteen (18 ) aspirants engaged themselves in an obvious bazaar exercise to procure the party’s governorship ticket believing that the result of the election will be written and announced at Abuja as used to be the case in the days of the PDP supervised INEC conducted elections.

The statement pointed out that the strength and popularity of UPP “is not based on its affiliation with the establishment at Abuja. It is not also derived from any primordial sentiment as maliciously portrayed by Prince Afegbua in his vexatious article.

“UPP is an emerging brand in the Nigerian political scene. It has a very strong and powerful message that is ideologically rooted for all the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria including the people of Edo State where Prince Afegbua comes from.

“The pedigree of the UPP leadership is incomparable to any other, in the areas of integrity, courage, boldness, uprightness, progressivism and consistency. Chief Osita Chidoka was attracted to UPP along with six other aspirants based on these attributes.

“His campaign for the party’s nomination was robust and total. His emergence remains the most rancor-free with very strong grassroots mandate of over 90per cent of more than 1400 delegates present and voting in the party’s Governorship Primary election held on 19th August, 2017.

“It is significant to note that APGA is waiting with trepidation for the Supreme Court to decide who between Chief Victor Oye and Chief Martin Agbaso leadership of the party is eligible to nominate a legitimate candidate for the Anambra State governorship election.

” The PDP that is already a shadow of its former self is still enmeshed in bitter controversy over the outcome of its governorship primary election in Anambra State.

The worse is Prince Afegbua’s APC where after the bazaar that characterized the party’s primary election in Anambra State, the APC has ended up as expected with multiple suits in various Courts to determine who their authentic candidate will be in an election that is scheduled for November 18, 2017.

“In spite of the distractions from the likes of Prince Afegbua, the UPP and Chief Osita Chidoka remain focused and have since mounted the most robust grassroots based campaign to win the election convincingly.

“The good people of Anambra State have suffered from the debilitating effect of godfatherism. They have also suffered from the damage done to their development by political merchants. Anambra State of 2017 is not available for retirees to come and assume governorship positions only to beef-up their retirement benefits to the detriment of the State’s development and growth. “We do not mind to be criticized, after all, we are at the moment an opposition party both at national level and state level. But criticism must be made of sterner stuff devoid of malice”, Dike said in his statement.

Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja