Six out of the seven aspirants of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA for the Idemili North State Constituency seat, have called for the total cancellation of the party primary for the constituency which was billed for Tuesday.
The aspirants are alleging total hijack of the process by the member representing the constituency in the State House of Assembly, Hon Ifeanyi Chiekwu.
TNC Correspondent who monitored the party primaries going on across parts of the state, reports that as at 12 noon, the primary was yet to commence at the venue, Idemili North Council Area headquarters, Ogidi.
Following the development, the aspirants had besieged the APGA party house in Awka to register their total disagreement with the whole process.
One of the aspirants, John Ezeude, alleged that the primary had been hijacked by the incumbent lawmaker representing the constituency and perfected plans to rig them out of the process.
“We left the party house this morning but all of a sudden, the lawmaker picked the returning officer and started driving us through all manner of places and eventually took the officer to his house at Umuoji.
“When they got to his house, they drove inside and when we wanted to ask some questions why the returning officer will be taken there, they started shooting and we had to run for our dear lives,” he narrated.
Another of the aspirants, Engineer Mike Chukwuma insisted that the delegates’ list was doctored as the list handed them yesterday does not reflect the true result of what happened at the ad-hoc delegates’ congress.
He noted that they had reported the incident to the state chairman and the State Electoral Committee Chairman from Abuja, Sampson Olalere and also sent text message to national chairman of the party, Chief Victor Oye.
“The delegates’ list was doctored.
“There was proper conduct of ward congress election on the 10th of May and the results are with the ward chairmen who are the returning officers.
“What you see on the board here does not reflect what happened on the 10th of May.
“We have enough evidence to prove that Hon Chiekwu tried to hijack this primary election.
“So we are making it clear that no election happened in Idemili North for APGA and that the sham that happened today should be cancelled,” he said.
One of the aspirants whose car was allegedly destroyed by the lawmaker, Obinna Igboebisi from Obosi, said he does not know the condition of his driver who was driving the vehicle.
He regretted that despite their earlier warning when all APGA aspirants met with the State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, that the lawmaker was about to rig the election, their warnings were not heeded.
“Governor Soludo and the APGA leadership must rise to condemn and reverse this nonsense.
“It is appalling that APGA will be fielding such character as its candidate and it is a big dent on our party.
“If not for the way we handled this matter and escaped, blood would have been shed today,” he said.
Other aspirants, Francisca Nwanne, Emeka Mbagha and Sylvester Agbapu while corroborating the statements of their co-aspirants, regretted that the plot to hijack the process started with the ad-hoc delegates’ congress, describing the entire process as a disgrace to democracy.
However, when TNC correspondent contacted the lawmaker, Hon Ifeanyi Chiekwu, he denied the allegations, saying the process was ongoing as scheduled.
Meanwhile, it was gathered as at the time of filing this report, that the State Electoral Committee, was yet to accept the result of the primary, due to the petitions received.
