Anambra 2021: 30 aspirants battle for PDP, APC tickets today

• Uncertainty In PDP Over Court Ruling That Nullified Delegates Election
• APC Intact, Seeks United Front After Primary

No fewer than 30 aspirants are expected to participate in today’s primaries of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) where the sole candidate of both parties for the November 6, 2021, governorship election in Anambra State will emerge.

While 16 aspirants that include three women will slug it in the PDP, 14 others will gun for the ticket of the APC. Two candidates will emerge from the process to join Prof. Charles Soludo, who, last Wednesday, picked the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

The contest in the PDP and APC will further narrow down the crowded aspiration for the number one seat in the state. However, the PDP aspirants are going into today’s primary with their fate hanging in the balance as a result of the credibility challenge being faced by the Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu executive conducting the process.

On June 9, a Federal High Court presided over by Justice Okukayode Adeniyi had sacked the Nwobu-led state executive of the party and pronounced Ejike Oguebego as the authentic state chairman.

When the faction of the executive went to vacate the order last Wednesday, it met stiff resistance from the court, which added to its burden by nullifying the June 10 and 11, 2021 elections it conducted to elect ward delegates that will vote at the primary today.

The June 9 judgment, which they sought to stay its execution, was based on a suit marked HC/CV/774/2021 filed by Samuel Anyakolah. The current feud in the party resulted from the state congress conducted on November 28 and December 1, 2017, under the supervision of Sir Chukwudi Umeaba as Acting Chairman, State Caretaker committee. Nwobu and Oguebego have continued to lay claims to the state chairmanship position since then.

Umeaba was appointed and sworn in by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party shortly after Prof. ABC Nwosu, who was Chairman of the state Caretaker Committee, resigned after the 2017 governorship election, which the party lost.

A chieftain of the party, Obinna Okafor, however, told The Guardian that there was a grand plot to derail the party and deny it the chance to reclaim the Anambra governorship seat it lost to APGA several years ago.

He maintained that he was certain that the governorship primary would go on today, saying: “The party has an avenue to appeal the judgment of the Federal High Court. Since the plan to stay the judgment was not granted, the party will definitely appeal and go on with the primary. What it means is that we have returned to the era it was left to the court to decide the fate of the party,” he added.

The APC, on its part, has maintained some level of sanity, despite its array of contestants. The hope is that the party would remain intact after today’s primary.

Responding to the allegation that the party might be fuelling crisis in other political parties to enable it win, its state Publicity Secretary, Okelo Madukaife, said: “We are paying attention now to the fine details of APC primary in Anambra, so that we will not fail like APGA, as we may not be able to find scape goats to pour the blame on.

“Part of responsibility to society is for political parties or any other corporate bodies to own up to their pitfalls and work to remediate them.”