Uzodinma, Madumere, Others Boycott Imo Governorship Primary

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Members of the Imo State All Progressives Congress (APC) Coalition have boycotted the fresh governorship primary election in the state ordered by the party’s national leadership. The party had fixed a rerun of the governorship primary in Imo State after cancelling an earlier one supervised by the Ahmed Gulak committee over alleged flaws.

Addressing at a press conference yesterday at the APC headquarters in Abuja, six aspirants in the race, led by Senator Hope Uzodinma and Imo State Deputy Governor Eze Madumere, said they had boycotted the fresh governorship primary.

Uzodinma said all the six aspirants had accepted the outcome of the last primaries conducted by the Gulak committee. Uzodinma stressed that out of the nine governorship aspirants, six were in Abuja while only three aspirants, including Governor Rochas Okorocha’s son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, took part in the fresh governorship primary in the state.

Madumere said he decided to boycott the primary because the process had been compromised.

He said, “Yesterday, we officially addressed the media, to make our positions known to our party and to the whole world for obvious reasons that the election has been compromised and for that reason that we all came together and said the critical stakeholders, majorly the aspirants, said that the primaries have already been conducted and the result ought to be released, which was conducted by Alhaji Ahmed Gulak and which declared Senator Hope Uzodimma winner

‘As I speak to you, some of you may be aware and may have watched on your TV stations that elections are going on. I can tell you that there is nothing going on in Imo State.

“The result, as I speak, has already been written and waiting for submission today and we have totally rejected it and have already gone to court and the processes have already been served on the national chairman and all the relevant critical stakeholders of the party that we have rejected that and we will stand firm on that.”

Another party chieftain, Senator Ben Uwajimogu, said no primary election took place yesterday in Imo State. Uwajimogu said what happened in the state was a charade. He also said the issue of the governorship primary in Imo State was already in court and the holding of another primary in the state was sub judice.

Meanwhile, the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC has approved eight aspirants to participate in today’s governorship primary in Kwara State. A statement by APC’s acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, listed the aspirants to include, Yakubu Gobir, Hakeem Lawal, Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, Lukman Mustapha, and Prof. Oba Abdul Raheem. Others are Alhaji Tajudeen, Abdullahi Shuaibu Yaman, and Abdulraheem Abdul Razak.

It said two aspirants, Abdulfatai Yahaya and Mohammed Dele Belgore, voluntarily withdrew from the race.