The National Working Committee, NWC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has been divided by moves by powerful forces to upturn the victory of Dr. Tony Nwoye, at the governorship primaries.
Nwoye, a member of the House of Representatives won the August 26 primary with 2,145 votes to beat Senator Andy Uba who got 931 votes.
Governor Kashim Shettima led primary committee conducted the election.
But Uba, who initially hailed the outcome of the election, petitioned the national leadership of the party, alleging that the result was doctored.
Recall that the primary election appeal panel report was submitted to the party’s National Secretariat on Tuesday
Speaking, an official of the party in Abuja that some members have been induced with “at least N200m to cancel the result of the freest and fairest primary ever conducted in the history of the party”.
The source confided in our correspondent that “even the party leadership is aware of the fact that a huge sum of money has been distributed”.
“Whoever wants to counter what I am saying should come out. Right before the election, over 10 wealthy businessmen stormed Anambra for their candidate who now wants to be declared winner.
“Raw cash was flying everywhere, they boasted the primary is already sealed. Their comments leaked. Now they want to get a ticket they didn’t win even where the man was thoroughly and convincingly repeated.
“When will Nigeria get it right if we allow impunity and illegality to go on? This man is playing God because he is connected, but people forget that power belongs to the Almighty, he gives whoever he pleases. Nobody gave Nwoye any chance, but he won
“On the day of that election, there were about 6 checking spots. So if you passed one, you will meet another. They said 2000 aliens were brought in as delegates but the question is, how do you even convey fake delegates without being detected.
“All those who voted were identified by their ward chairmen. Once you are identified, you then receive tag. Don’t forget that all these were under the watchful eyes of INEC officials, security agencies and agents of all the contestants.
“The man shouting now used his mouth to praise the conduct of the primary, it was aired live on NTA. Money is not everything, he lost and he should accept as his fate. We need to start preparing to win the election; they should save us these distractions”.
Another top party member, accused a former top Peoples Democratic Party chieftain, PDP, who is a senior APC national officer, as the arrowhead of the bribe shared to annul the election.
He lamented that it was unfortunate that the “very corrupt” ex-PDP member, who was part of the team that conducted the election in Awka and witnessed all that transpired sold out for money.
The source said that those seeking the annulment of Nwoye’s victory had tried in vain to compromise Governor Shettima, to do their bidding and impose Uba on the party as its candidate but the governor declined and opted for the conduct of a free and fair election to enable the emergence of the best candidate for the party.
“The Chairman of the election panel politely told those who approached him that he could not be bought with any price and would therefore conduct a free election by providing a level-playing field for all the candidates to test their popularity.
“In fact, when we arrived Awka for the primaries all of us had expected that Andy Uba was going to sweep the polls because of his position as a former governor and a sitting senator but when the results came out, he lost by a wide margin to Nwoye and we could not change the decision of the electorate for whatever reason”.
The source dismissed insinuations that the appeal panel was being pressed by the Presidency and security agencies to replace Nwoye with Uba, arguing that neither President Buhari nor the Director General of the DSS, had any hand in what he described as the unholy bid to replace the winner.
“I can tell you that what is happening is that some powerful politicians in the PDP and the Senate, who are more comfortable with Uba want him to contest against Governor Obiano with the hope that once he wins, he would return to the PDP, from where he crossed over to the APC early this year”.
Meanwhile, Nwoye has spoken on moves to upturn his victory.
He hailed the conduct of primary that produced him as candidate and urged the party to toe the part of honour, fairness, truth and justice by affirming him as the APC flagbearer for the November 28 election.
Source: DAILY POST
