APGA disowns Udensi, ADC elects Jonas as guber candidate

• Meregini, Uchendu for Reps and Senate

Chairman of the Abia State Chapter of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Rev. Augustine Ehiemere, yesterday, faulted one of the four former governorship aspirants of the party, Chief Chikwe Udensi, for claiming to have won the party’s guber ticket based on the primary held on May 29, 2022 in Umuahia, the state capital.

Ehiemere, at a press conference in Umuahia, said that Prof. Gregory Ibe was the duly declared winner in the guber primary in which three others, Etigwe Uwa, Ijioma John and Udensi, participated and addressed the delegates in turns.

He recalled their vote scores as 283, 148, 36 and 12 for Ibe, Uwa, Ijioma and Udensi respectively, asserting that the APGA national leadership has ratified Ibe’s victory

He noted that after Udensi addressed delegates at the Kolping Conference Centre, Umuahia, venue of the primary, he had, while accreditation of delegates commenced, disappeared from the centre and never returned.

According to the state Chairman, while the primary was still in progress, some online media platforms reported that Udensi had emerged as the party’s candidate from a purported primary held at Villa Roy Hotel in Umuahia.

He also recalled that after the Returning Officer, Mr. Echezona Etiaba, announced the results, the two other contestants, Uwa and Ijioma, took turns to congratulate Ibe and even posed for photographs with him.

IN another development, the state Action Democratic Party (ADP), yesterday, at its primary held in Umuahia by unanimous affirmation, declared the former Executive Chairman of Arochukwu Local Council, Mazi Chibuike Jonas, as its guber candidate for the 2023 governorship election.

Also elected by the same mode were Chief Paul Meregini and Nnamdi Uchendu as its candidates for Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal Constituency and Abia Central Senatorial District.

Addressing the delegates, Jonas assured Abians that if elected governor, he would change the negative narratives in the state, through his well-articulated programmes, which he would soon disclose.