Nov 18: Anambra traders task INEC on free, fair election 

Anambra State Traders under the aegis of their umbrella body, Amalgamated Markets Traders Association Anambra State (AMATAS), have challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure the November 18, 2017, Governorship election was not compromised in anyway.

They vowed to resist any attempt by any person or group to rig the forthcoming governorship election in the state.

President -General of AMATAS, Chief Okwudili Ezenwankwo, who stated this when members of the Shoe Manufacturers Association of Anambra State (SMAAS), paid him a courtesy call at the AMATAS secretariat, Onitsha, said without rigging, the incumbent Governor Willie Obiano has the chances of winning the election of November 18, 2017.

Ezenwankwo insisted that the election would eventually end up as a one-stroke victory for APGA which will guarantee Obiano’s second tenure ambition.

He said: “Nobody can rig election in Anambra State and it can’t even be tried because there would be no lapses to create an avenue for rigging and anybody who wants to govern the state should test his or her popularity through the ballot box and not by rigging”.

Ezenwankwo said he was yet to see any strong opposition to Obiano from other political parties so far because Obiano had done so well in office in all ramifications to the extent that he had provided enabling environment for the people to thrive in their undertakings which has now endeared him to the traders.

He said what Obiano had done for the traders was so unprecedented that they had concluded arrangements to vote for him massively.

Speaking on the factions in APGA, Ezenwankwo said: “APGA has only one candidate who is Obiano. The Kangaroo order of mandamus obtained by Chief Martin Agbaso from the Enugu High court has been quashed and with that, there is no more crisis in the party. APGA is now one family and all of us are working to deliver him on the D-day”.

Stories by Alphonsus Nweze