Anambra 2021: No APC Primary Election Held On Saturday — Ngige

leader in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Minister of
Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has said that there was no APC
primary election to elect the party’s candidate for the November 6
Anambra State governorship election.

He said that no primary election took place in the state,
stressing that as at 4 pm on Saturday, when the election supposed
to end, no single material came to his ward and other wards in the
state.

Ngige who spoke to newmen in Awka said that as soon as he
noticed what was happening he immediately petitioned the National
Acting Chairman of the party and the Primary Election Committee
Chairman calling for the postponement of the primary election.

He expressed shock at the alleged declaration of Sen Andy Uba as
the winner of the primary election with outrageous figures for an
election he insists did not hold.

‘I’m not aware that the APC has produced any candidate,’ Ngige
said. ‘There is no way the party will elect a candidate for
governor or senator for an election without following due process
and the constitution of the party. We have two options; consensus
and delegate elections which is direct or indirect elections. So
you can’t run away from this process and say that you won the
election. No, the process must be followed for anybody to emerge
and that did not take place in Anambra State yesterday.

‘In my letter to the National Chairman of the party and the
Committee Chairman for the primary election, I gave a time frame
for them to choose to conduct primary in the state before the
expiration of the INEC deadline because no party primary election
has been conducted in the state.

‘The guideline for the conduct of the primary election is there,
it said that party members and delegates should go to the venue of
the election to vote and we did some configuration for the conduct
of the election within six hours, which was supposed to end at 4
pm, but my people were at the venue till 4 pm which was the time to
end voting. It was after 4 pm that I started writing to the
National Chairman informing him that no material had reached
anywhere after 4 pm. I also wrote to the Chairman of the Primary
Election panel who is the Governor of Ogun State [Dapo Abiodun] at
4:25 pm.

‘The portion of the process has to be done sometime this week.
It is up to the national chairman and his executive committee to
seat, get reports from the committee chairman of the primary
election panel and speak with the aspirants too because the
aspirants are now their babies and their children.

‘Did you see any voting yesterday in any ward? I’m asking you as
journalists. So if we don’t put our house in order, if we do
kangaroo primary and impose somebody, of course, we have planned to
fail already. We will meet up with the INEC deadline which is July
2. We still have this week. We can do primary on Tuesday or
Wednesday, do an appeal on Thursday and submit our list to INEC on
July 1. So we shall meet up with time,’ Ngige assured.

leader in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Minister of
Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has said that there was no APC
primary election to elect the party’s candidate for the November 6
Anambra State governorship election.

He said that no primary election took place in the state,
stressing that as at 4 pm on Saturday, when the election supposed
to end, no single material came to his ward and other wards in the
state.

Ngige who spoke to newmen in Awka said that as soon as he
noticed what was happening he immediately petitioned the National
Acting Chairman of the party and the Primary Election Committee
Chairman calling for the postponement of the primary election.

He expressed shock at the alleged declaration of Sen Andy Uba as
the winner of the primary election with outrageous figures for an
election he insists did not hold.

‘I’m not aware that the APC has produced any candidate,’ Ngige
said. ‘There is no way the party will elect a candidate for
governor or senator for an election without following due process
and the constitution of the party. We have two options; consensus
and delegate elections which is direct or indirect elections. So
you can’t run away from this process and say that you won the
election. No, the process must be followed for anybody to emerge
and that did not take place in Anambra State yesterday.

‘In my letter to the National Chairman of the party and the
Committee Chairman for the primary election, I gave a time frame
for them to choose to conduct primary in the state before the
expiration of the INEC deadline because no party primary election
has been conducted in the state.

‘The guideline for the conduct of the primary election is there,
it said that party members and delegates should go to the venue of
the election to vote and we did some configuration for the conduct
of the election within six hours, which was supposed to end at 4
pm, but my people were at the venue till 4 pm which was the time to
end voting. It was after 4 pm that I started writing to the
National Chairman informing him that no material had reached
anywhere after 4 pm. I also wrote to the Chairman of the Primary
Election panel who is the Governor of Ogun State [Dapo Abiodun] at
4:25 pm.

‘The portion of the process has to be done sometime this week.
It is up to the national chairman and his executive committee to
seat, get reports from the committee chairman of the primary
election panel and speak with the aspirants too because the
aspirants are now their babies and their children.

‘Did you see any voting yesterday in any ward? I’m asking you as
journalists. So if we don’t put our house in order, if we do
kangaroo primary and impose somebody, of course, we have planned to
fail already. We will meet up with the INEC deadline which is July
2. We still have this week. We can do primary on Tuesday or
Wednesday, do an appeal on Thursday and submit our list to INEC on
July 1. So we shall meet up with time,’ Ngige assured.