ANAMBRA: APC GUBER CANDIDATE DEFECTS TO PPA; ACCUSES APC OF ELECTORAL MALPRACTICE

A former governorship aspirant of the All
Progressives Alliance (APC) in Anambra State,
Godwin Ezeemo, has defected to the Progressive
Peoples Alliance (PPA), claiming that the former
was not democratic enough. He told journalists in Awka on Saturday that he
decamped to PPA because APC, under which he
had nursed an ambition to contest for the state’s
governorship position, lacked internal democracy. Mr. Ezeemo, who spoke through Okey Nwoke, the
Publicity Secretary of his campaign organisation,
said that he defected from APC “because of the
high level of electoral malpractice at its primaries,
which produced Senator Chris Ngige as the
governorship candidate.’’ He alleged that APC failed to conduct the
gubernatorial primaries on the principles of equity
and fairness.
“The National leadership of APC had already made
up their mind on who would have the ticket; the
primary election was, therefore, a mere formality. APC lacked the internal structure to conduct the
primaries; so, they just selected their candidate. “Equal opportunities were not given to all the
aspirants; plans for the programme were vague to
other aspirants, while all required information was
given only to Sen. Ngige. I considered this as unfair
and I decided to leave for another party,’’ he said. Mr. Ezeemo stressed that it was illogical for APC,
which had been advocating fairness and the due
process, to turn around and become guilty of what
it had been preaching against.
He described PPA as a peace-loving party, adding
that he had decided to use its platform to accomplish his goals and vision for the
development of Anambra. He said that he had a
five-point agenda for the state’s development if
elected as governor in the November16 election.
The aspirant said that his priority areas of interest
included infrastructural development, security, education, health, rural transformation and
agriculture.
Efforts to get reactions from the state APC
headquarters over the alleged electoral malpractice
during its governorship primaries proved abortive.
However, the state PPA Chairman, Anayo Obidigbo, said that the party would launch its governorship
campaign on October 21. (NAN)