By Emma Ogbuehi
In a rare show of confidence, former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has waved off his being dropped as governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the Anambra November 6 poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), describing it as a storm that would soon blow over. He insisted that he remained the authentic APGA candidate for the election, assuring his supporters and APGA faithful that he would overcome the momentary setback. Soludo made the declarations in a statement from his Media Office, signed by Joe Anatune.
INEC, had on Friday, published the list and personal particulars of candidates and their running mates for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State.
In the list, the Commission skipped the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Valentine Ozigbo, and dropped Soludo. In place of Soludo, INEC named Chukwuma Michael Umeoji as the substantive candidate of APGA.
It also named Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah as the candidate of the (YPP) and Emmanuel Andy Nnamdi Uba as that of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, explained that the Commission took the action in obedience to orders of court. He said: “The Commission also considered and took cognizance of the judgments/court orders served on it in relation to the primaries of the political parties and other processes leading to the election”.
However, Soludo’s media handlers blamed his travail on the machinations of a Jigawa State High Court which it alleged, created a fictional faction of APGA and directed INEC to accept its nomination of a former aspirant (Umeoji) who was disqualified from participating at the APGA primaries. While assuring that the “rascality and impunity will not stand”, the media office called on Soludo’s supporters in Nigeria and around the world to remain calm, assuring that APGA will appeal the judgment.
“Soludo remains the only legally and legitimately nominated candidate of APGA for the 2021 governorship election in Anambra”, the statement stressed. It emphasised that there is no faction in APGA, adding, “APGA remains one united huge family as Nigeria’s third largest political party under Ozonkpu (Dr) Victor Ike Oye as the national Chairman and Governor Willie Obiano as the national leader/BOT Chairman”.
Since the conduct of the primary elections last month, APGA and PDP have been enmeshed in internal crisis, resulting to the parties having two sets of candidates for the November poll. While Soludo and Umeoji emerged from the two factions of APGA, Ozigbo and Senator Ugochukwu Uba emerged from the two camps in PDP.