Category: Nigeria

Members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Enugu State, on Sunday, rejected any form of campaign fund from the presidential candidate of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
It was reported that this formed part of the resolutions reached during a stakeholders’ meeting at the South-East Secretariat of the party.

The governorship candidate of the party, Chief Uche Nnaji, who made the proposition before it was unanimously carried by members at the meeting, said the campaign fund was the cause of the current crisis rocking the Enugu State chapter of the APC.

Reffering to the meeting of some of the party leaders in the State with the APC national leadership, he said the demand for the removal of Barr. Ugochukwu Agballah as the State Chairman was an exercise in futility.

The party leaders, led by former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani had told the national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu to constitute a caretaker Committee for the party in the State.

Speaking on the development, Nnaji said, “We learnt of the mischief going on among our brothers, but the mischief will not go anywhere under our watch. About six months to election you want to remove the State exco of a party that is doing very well.

“When we took over, there was no party, it was existing for another party, which was paying them. We asked those ones to leave and we are happy they have left.

“Most of these gladiators don’t have presence in any ward. Some of them, their ward is owing rent for two years, they can’t pay N30,000.

“Yet, they want to remove a capacity chairman. You can’t touch an exco that is doing super well.

“Tinubu’s money is behind the APC crisis in Enugu State. They want to create confusion, after which they will say, there is faction, divide the campaign fund.

“They did it in 2015, did it 2019. The same human beings that did it then are the ones repeating it now.

“I will be meeting with our national chairman on Monday and then with Tinubu on Tuesday. I will tell Tinubu not to bring his money to Enugu.

“Enugu State doesn’t need Tinubu’s money, let them not send it. We will use our money and work. When we finish election, we will go for refund. If they bring it now, they may start killing us.”

“The issue of Tinubu money, I believe I have your support to tell them,” he asked, with the members chorusing ‘yes’.

Nnaji equally declared that they were not a party to any 25 percent voting arrangement.

“We reject in strongest term the 25 percent they want to ascribe to us. As it stands now, over 50 percent of the voters are with us.

“Anything less than 70 percent, then we have failed. I challenge everyone to come and check after the election, there will be nothing less than 70 percent,” he boasted.

Earlier in a remark, Agballah said he was on the move to reposition APC in the State and won’t be distracted.

He said, “today, I’m happy that APC is not just ready to take part in this election, but poised to win.

“We parade the best, our guber candidate is the best, we can trace the source of his resources. We shall investigate the source of the phantom wealth the other candidates are parading.

“Nobody contesting the governorship election in Enugu State is as clean as our candidate.

“We rejected some candidates that are questionable, we also disqualified some surrogates.”

Meanwhile, at the meeting, the party’s local government and ward chairmen said they remained behind the Agballah-led State Working Committee.

They announced that they would be meeting the APC national chairman to make their position known.

Accord presidential candidate, Professor Christopher Imumolen has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for his decision not to interfere in next year’s general elections.

The president while hosting state governors who are members of his political party, APC in Abuja on Tuesday had made it categorically clear that he would respect the will and wish of the Nigerian people by not trying to influence the outcome of the elections even though his party would be presenting a candidate in Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The president said he was encouraged by recent governorship elections held in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states, saying it had further boosted the people’s confidence in the electoral process.
His position on the elections has since elicited a variety of comments from Nigerians including Professor Imumolen who is easily the youngest candidate in the 2023 presidential race.

Professor Imumolen in his response said the stance of the president on neutrality represents perhaps the biggest victory witnessed in the electoral process in over two decades of the country’s return to democratic rule.

He said such neutrality not only had the tendency to boost the confidence of both the contestants and voting public in the electoral process, it was a major milestone in the sense that it negates now well held stereotypes of incumbents using the instrumentality of state power to influence outcomes of elections.

“I really want to appreciate our command-in-chief, President Muhammadu Buhari for stating that he’d be neutral in next year’s general elections,” Imumolen said on Saturday in an interview.
“What makes his position on non-interference in the elections most remarkable is the fact that he is an interested party. The APC would be presenting a candidate in the elections, and if past antecedents is the yardstick, then we would all naturally believe he’d do anything, including using the security forces and the electoral umpire to sway the results of the elections his way.

“For this, I salute him. Now, Nigerians can be fully assured that their votes will count and all the negative practices of the past will not happen this time.

“Our biggest fear before now has been that the elections will be rigged to favour the party in power. But the president’s recent statement will do a lot clear those fears. Our people, assured that their collective wishes would be respected, will now be confident to throng the 176,000 polling booths all across the country on election day to cast their votes,” he added.

Professor Imumolen also called on the president to complement his stance on neutrality with adequate support to the security personnel that would be deployed across the voting centres on election day.

“Another wish I’d like the president to grant our people is to ensure that the security forces, personnel are well motivated and mobilised to deliver a hitch-free exercise.

“I hope we can trust the president on this? If he indeed honours his words to steer clear of interfering in the elections and allows the best man win, then he will go down in history as the man who really brought about transparent elections in Nigeria.

“What a legacy that would be? When his story would be told to future generations, he shall be known as a champion of democracy despite initially coming from a military background. I know he will not disappoint, though,” he said.
The youthful presidential candidate also commended the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) for cleaning up their acts in such a way as to ensure resounding successes in elections recently held in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun, saying it was a great improvement on elections of the past.

“I will also like to commend INEC for the efficient manner they conducted the governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states.

“I am particularly impressed by the way the results were collated, announced with minimal delay. With their plans to also electronically transmit elections in next year’s general elections, Nigerians are in for the best times of their lives.

“With everything appearing to be in place, I have no doubts whatsoever that a candidate like Professor Christopher Imumolen who is the voice of the people, who has the structure, who believes in raising millions of votes will emerge the winner,” he said.