Ugwuanyi wins Enugu North ticket as Nnamani clinches East

• Nwobodo names Mbah as gov’s successor

Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, yesterday, picked the senatorial ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Enugu North Senatorial District in the 2023 general elections.

Also, a former governor of the state, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, won the party’s senatorial ticket for Enugu East.

Ugwuanyi polled 299 votes out of the 316 votes cast in the primary election held at the Nsukka Stadium, to defeat four other contestants.

Mr. Attahiru Ochie, the returning officer in the primary election, had while declaring Ugwuanyi the winner, commended the peaceful conduct of the delegates.

At Agbani, in Nkanu West, Nnamani polled all the 243 votes cast by the delegates that participated in the primary election to beat two others, including ex-chief of staff, Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo.

The returning officer in the election, Mr. Chinedu Onu, who announced the outcome of the primary election, commended the orderly conduct of the delegates, saying it was the way to go in the PDP.

In his acceptance speech, Ugwuanyi dedicated the victory to God and thanked the delegates for their overwhelming support and solidarity.  

IN another development, ex-governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo, may have laid to rest several months of speculations over the successor of Enugu State Governor, Ugwuanyi, as he, yesterday, declared Mr. Peter Mbah as the right person for the job.

Nwobodo told a press conference at his residence in Amaechi, Enugu South Council, that Mba also featured in the choice of leaders and stakeholders of the state, stressing that he is qualified to continue from where Ugwuanyi stops.

The Elder statesman, and one of the founders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), stated that as the father of Enugu politics, he had to speak out because the governorship primary would be held today.

Nwobodo said that he had, in 2019, invited Mbah to declare interest in the governorship of the state, the same way the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe invited him to run for the governorship of old Anambra State.