Crisis Looms As Ngige Trashes Anambra APC Primaries, Says “No Voting Material In His Ward”

A former Governor of Anambra state and the minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, says he was not the only one denied the voting rights at the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries that held on Saturday.

The Minister noted that his relations and in-laws who are members of the party were also disenfranchised owing to the unavailability of the electoral materials.

“I did not vote in the election because no material came in my ward. My family members, my children who are of age, my cousins who have gone into APC with me, distant relations, in-laws..,” he said during the Channels TV Politics Today programme on Monday, monitored by ABN TV.

Mr. Ngige further stated that based on reports from monitors deployed across the 326 wards in the state, no election held on Saturday.

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“By 4:00 p.m., I wrote a text to the National Chairman of our caretaker committee, His Excellency, Mai Buni. And I said, look, nothing is going on here. And this election is supposed to be concluded by 4:00 p.m. By the guidelines released by the party.”

The Labour minister said he also notified the Chairman of the electoral committee, Ogun state Governor, Dapo Abiodun of the development but all efforts yielded no results. Mr Ngige, although claimed he had no preferred candidate, confessed his affinity to two of the aspirants.

One of them is Johnbosco Onunkwo, who came second after the Governor Abiodun-led committee declared Senator Andy Uba as the winner of the poll. The minister said Onunkwo’s father was his teacher during his elementary education, hence the soft spot for him.

The former Anambra Governor has again called for the rerun of the Saturday primaries, alleging that the last exercise was marred by fraud. Recall that 11 of the 14 governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State have said that the June 26 governorship primary in the state did not hold.

George Moghalu, the spokesperson for the aspirants, made the position of the group known in a press conference on Saturday in Awka.

Mr Moghalu said that in all the 326 electoral wards of the state, people came out to vote, but that none of the APC team saddled with the responsibility to conduct the primary and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials were seen.

The aspirants, however, appealed to the party leadership to come up with a fresh date for the Anambra primary to ensure that the party beat the deadline in the Electoral Act.