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A group, Anambra Equity Movement (ANEM) has counselled Chief Valentine Ozigbo one of the contestants in the April 5, 2025 All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election in Anambra state to avoid the temptation of speaking from both sides of the mouth on its outcome and join hands with the winner, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu and the APC to work towards winning the November 8, governorship election in the state....CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>
This objective which is dear to the APC in Anambra state, the group said can not be achieved by unnecessary bickering and recourse to verbal attacks aimed at discrediting the state chapter of the party and situate it falsely in the minds of right thinking Anambra electorate desirous of positive change in the state.
Chief Ozigbo had precisely on April 8, 2025, – three clear days after the primary election in which he participated issued a statement condemning the April 5, APC primary as a charade and a theft against Anambra people alleging that the process that produced Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu as the Party’s flag bearer in the November 8, election was fraught with irregularities and violation of democratic norms.
“That exercise by all observable standards was a charade,a well orchestrated heist designed to deliver a preferred outcome”, he had written,citing wide spread manipulation,voter exclusion and non transparency in vote counting.
He also said that both the process was violated in the internal party rules and the broader expectation of fairness and accountability in a democratic system, adding that he had formally filed a petition before the APC Gubernatorial Primary Appeals Committee.
In the April 5,2025 APC primary election in Awka,the Anambra state capital, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu had garnered 1,455 votes to emerge winner as against Chief Valentine Ozigbo who trailed a distant second with 67 votes, while Chiefs John Bosco Onunkwo and Edozie Madu scored 26 and 8 votes in that order to come 3rd and 4th respectively.
But Hon Tony Uche, an Engineer and Convener of Anambra Equity Movement told Daily Independent in Awka on Tuesday that he was actually surprised and shocked to read Ozigbo’s post primary election statement on the outcome describing it as unbelievable.
“I still don’t want to believe that he penned down those words in his statement.
“First,he was a late entrant into the party.He was there from the beginning of accreditation of delegates to actual balloting and announcement of the results in which Prince Ukachukwu won overwhelmingly. After the results were announced,all the other contestants who lost including Ozigbo walked over to Ukachukwu and congratulated him in a warm embrace, while pledging to work together with him to ensure APC victory at the polls in November.
” So, you can now see why i am surprised that he is saying this. It is like he speaks from both sides of his mouth and playing double standards.
“This is because everybody at the primary saw that the process was so open,free, fair, credible as they all participated actively in the process.
“It is the first time APC conducted such a rancour free and transparent primary in Anambra state. So for him to say that the primary was skewed in favour of Ukachukwu is laughable.
“Now let me tell you that Chief Ozigbo joined the party a few days to the primary when other contestants had already built relationships with the delegates. It was when Ozigbo defected to the APC from the Labur party and joined the race and pleaded for extension and it was granted.
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“He came when the delegates had already emerged and he hadn’t the opportunity to have his own loyalists in the delegate selection process unlike the winner who with his supporters actively participated in the whole process.
” So by the time he came, most of the delegates he went to talk to had already committed themselves to particular candidates. Now, i wonder what he was expecting. I was surprised that he got up to 67 votes and i applauded him because it was a rare achievement.
“Perhaps, he wanted the APC to dash him the ticket on a platter without working for it.
“For him to accuse the APC of wrong doing in this very credible primary election is to say the least unbecoming of his class.
“Val my dear brother and friend, please don’t be a sour loser. Please go and work with your brother, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu and APC to dethrone the sitting Emperor at Agu-Awka and allow the people of the state take back their state and be connected to the national political grid for the good of the state. I advise that this is not time for bickering.
“Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu has already extended his hand of fellowship to all of you who contested with him.”, he said.
While congratulating Ukachukwu for a well deserved victory at the primary election, Engr Uche said what Ikukuoma as Ukachukwu is fondly called should know is that APC has not been on the ground in Anambra state until lately when he and other stalwarts came into the party to strengthen it.
For this reason, he said there is an urgent need for him to begin immediate reconciliation and unification of all party faithfuls and aspirants that lost out at the primary.
He advised that the Anambra APC should also endeavour to reach out to all APC stakeholders, supporters,old and new members and make them have a sense of belonging in the party, mobilize them into action and hit the ground running.
“Many APGA ,PDP, and Labour Party supporters out there are aggrieved and schemed out of their parties. His team and APC members in Anambra State should reach out and welcome them into APC and give them a sense of belonging.
“He should also reach out to other stakeholders especially the church hierarchy in the state, the youth and the suffering trading community in Anambra state,Town Union leaders and the civil servants whose condition of service is worse than those others in the country.
“He should realize that the responsibility placed on his shoulders is too enormous to shirk from and Anambra people are looking up to him for succour.
“The people are expecting that in the next few days he would tell them his articulated blue print on how he intends to rescue Anambra from the menace of insecurity, poor governance in all sectors including education, commerce,lack of social amenities among others.
“Anambra is looking up to him to resolve the divisive church politics in the state and make the much talked about ecumenism a reality so that christians in the state will speak as one in the body of christ with due respect to the adherents of other religions…CONTINUE READING>>
