A Chieftain of All the Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State, Chief Bonaventure Maduafokwa, has petitioned the national working committee of the party over the controversies surrounding the party’s Anambra guber primary election.
Tony Nwoye was declared winner of the election conducted by Governor Shettima of Borno State.
Speaking on the emerging developments, Maduafokwa in the petition to Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the APC national chairman, stressed that it would not make sense to withdraw the victory announced in the governorship primary and confer it on another aspirant without invalidating the whole process.
There have been speculations that the APC appeal committee had recommended that Hon. Tony Nwoye should be withdrawn and the ticked handed over to Senator Andy Uba, who came second at the governorship primary.
But in a petition titled: “Effective management of August 26 APC guber primary crisis in Anambra State,” Maduafokwa noted that as the pioneer elected state chairman of All Peoples Party (APP) in Anamabra State, he feels very disturbed “at the rather long period it has taken to resolve the Anambra State crisis.”
He invited the national leaders to reflect on the fact that the party was about to face an incumbent governor with appreciable approval rating across Anambra so that they could call a spade a spade and expedite action if the party is expected to move ahead.
Maduafokwa, who was also the Special Adviser to Anambra State Government on security matters, said from the look of things, it would take some time for APC to get competitive enough in the state and hopefully tilt the balance in the forthcoming poll.
Part of the petition read: “It is to be noted that there has been series of allegations, real or imagined, leveled against a particular candidate that appeared to have badly negated the integrity of the primary election in a truly democratic context.
“If we should in any circumstance reach a conclusion that delegates were swapped as alleged, to the extent that a particular aspirant gained massive advantage inappropriately, then it stands to reason that the gap of over 2000 votes thus improperly earned has rendered the entire process null, void and of no effect.
“In this logical context, the question of who came second or last cannot legitimately featureas no real election could be said to have taken place, as such nobody could be said to have won anything since the trajectory of a proper primary when infused with 2000 votes could have drastically altered the outcome. No one therefore could have won anything, there was no election.”
Maduafokwa said he feels gravely outraged that “our party, the APC, that seized the national consciousness and rose to prominence on the mantra of fighting corruption, allowed a situation where cash and carry delegates went on unhindered in a most brazen fashion without the intervention of the party leadership.”
He said it was saddening that there was no iota of intervention from the law enforcement agencies of government, “as a result of this defenseless onslaught on the sensibilities, certain decent aspirants withdrew from the race giving up everything with the outcome showing a painful enthronement of who spent the most and not who won.
“Allow me to sound a note of caution. Rigging for our party will not work in Anambra State where you have in the leadership and across the state, tireless veterans of many successful later day election victories through the courts.
“Given the deployment of drones and other hitech facilities as seen repeatedly in Rivers State, manipulating the will of the people of Anambra could lead to a national crisis. Rather what we may have to do is to scout for a decent aspirant from the inflicted lower position calculus of the questioned primary as a compromise candidate.
“This will discourage money bags from trying the patience of all others in elections. APC urgently needs someone who can truly show level headedness in times of crisis for the election, while maintaining respectful cordial relations with the party leadership in a manner devoid of being power drunk.”
Maduafokwa enjoined APC leaders to seek for an aspirant not smeared with blemish, but with experience and vision, stressing that such a quiet performer and born leader, is what the situation calls for if the party would go to the election to win.
He declared: “We should be able to find the aspirant that fits. To overcome sever time constraints, and in the light of the fact that Anambra is a truly home voter population of Christians, only a candidate that can quickly tap from decades of close partnership with the church in Anambra, either catholic or Anglican, can do the magic. Neglecting such a rewarding leverage proven and native to a candidate will be a costly mistake of immense proportions.”
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