Anambra Guber Primary: Crisis Rocks Opposition Parties as APGA Returns Soludo

David-ChyddyEleke reports that at a time when permutations should have been clearer following conclusion of party primary for the 2025 Anambra governorship race, crisis have crept into opposition parties, as Governor Chukwuma Soludo maintains his grip on the All Progressives Grand Alliance.

Penultimate Saturday was a critical decision-making day for stakeholders in Anambra as major political parties in the state elected candidates that will fly their flag during the November 8, 2025 governorship poll in the state.

While the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) elected incumbent governor, Prof. ChukwumaSoludo to fly its flag, the Labour Party chose immediate past Director General of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr George Moghalu, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) elected Hon Jude Ezenwafor and All Progressives Congress (APC) settled for businessman and real estate giant, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu.

While the Peoples Democratic Republic (PDP) which used to be the centre of attraction in the state seems to have lost steam, many had been very expectant to know who the APC would choose as its candidate among the seven heavy weight politicians contesting to pick its ticket for the election. Already, it was clear that the APGA would affirm the incumbent governor, Prof. Soludo as he was the only one who purchased the party’s expression of interest and nomination forms. The big question was who the APC and LP would elect to rival him.

Among those seeking the ticket of the APC were; founder of United Nigeria Airline, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo; former member representing Aguata federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon ChumaUmeoji; oil engineer, JohnboscoOnunkwo; businessman and real estate magnate, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu; former MD/CEO of Transnational Corporation, also known as Transcorp, Mr Valentine Ozigbo; Pro-Chancellor of Olivia University, Burundi, Sir Paul Chukwuma; and MrEdozieMadu.

The aspirants had campaigned extensively, with each of them harping on the need to elect a candidate with integrity, charisma and the capacity to match Soludo, bearing in mind that he is an incumbent.

After the recent primary election which witnessed a lot of violence, intrigues and horse trading that led to the withdrawal of three of the aspirants, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu emerged as the candidate of the party. Ukachukwu during the primary election garnered 1,455 votes to defeat Mr Valentine Ozigbo who came second with 67 votes while JohnboscoOnunkwo and Hon EdozieMadu polled 26 and eight votes respectively.

In APGA, the party which prides itself as the most organized; through a voice vote affirmed Prof Soludo as the candidate of the party, this was after ballots were cast, in which Soludo polled a whooping 3,168 votes, out of the total votes cast, 3,172, while four votes were disqualified as invalid votes.

The exercise which held at Dr Alex Ekwueme Square was monitored by representatives of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and was deemed very orderly and transparent.

In Labour Party, Dr George Moghalu; a new entrant into the party was announced winner of a contest which his co-contestant, Mr John Nwosu has long rejected, distancing himself from it.  Moghalu had reportedly polled 575 votes, while Nwosu was allocated 19 votes.

But Nwosu in a press release signed by the Director General of his campaign organisation, Hon Ben ChuksNwosu said he never took part in the primary election where votes were allocated to him, having previously stepped down from the race as a result of irregularities in the compilation of delegates’ list. The press release read in part: “The attention of John Nwosu Campaign Organization has been drawn to the purported allocation of some votes to our principal, Mr. John ChumaNwosu at the 5th April Labour Party primary election, in which he did not participate in person or by proxy.

“Accordingly, it is patently mischievous for the organizers of the purported election to allocate any number of votes purportedly cast by delegates to Mr. John ChumaNwosu who had withdrawn from the primary election because of cogent and verifiable series of manipulations of the delegates list. Nwosu chose to withdraw because the election lacked legitimacy in the teeth of the intent and meaning of the Supreme Court judgment sacking the National Chairman, Julius Abure.”

Sources hinted THISDAY that following the sack of Abure-led executive, Nwosu is hoping that the new leadership of the party led by Nenadi Usman will cancel the primary superintended by Abure-led party officials and announce one where he would emerge as candidate of the party.

In APC, three of those who stepped down from the APC primary contest had complained bitterly about sabotage. The trio of Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, Hon ChumaUmeoji and Sir Paul Chukwuma had withdrawn from the race, citing diverse reasons. In the case of Okonkwo, he complained about the introduction of violence into the race, insisting that his ambition is not worth the life of any of his supporters. True to his words, there had been an orgy or violence at the accreditation points during the party primary election, to the point that an aspirant was accused of hiring thugs to the venue and also compromising security agents, such that they looked away while thugs had a free reign, chasing away supporters of other aspirants. Some party delegates were said to have sustained injuries during the fracas.

As for Sir Paul Chukwuma, he did not only withdraw from the race, but resigned from the party, saying that some unprogressive elements existed within it. THISDAY also gathered that one of the aspirants compromised the leadership of the party by giving out huge amounts of money. His resignation from the party has fueled the belief that he may join another party to battle those who sidelined him from the party primary, but when journalists asked him, he refused to let out any information, insisting he had resigned from the party and needs time to think through his next step.

As a fallout of the APC primary election, a chieftain of the party and Director General of the campaign council of one of the aspirants who withdrew, Hon IfeanyiIbezi, has dumped the party and pitched tent with Soludo, promising to ensure that Soludo gets a second term.

In a meeting in his country home, Ibezi said: “We will start with the 710 polling units in Idemili North and South. The same way I delivered the zone to Tinubu in 2023, the same way I gave it to Soludo in 2021, that is how I will package the votes of the constituency in November and deliver it to Soludo. Soludo must go for a second term. I went on inspection of Soludo’s projects and I know he is doing well. If your party is not doing well, what will you do, is it not to switch support to a better party?

“Do you want to be stagnated for the next eight years? I know what to do, if you have been my follower all these years and you have not learnt politics, then you are not intelligent, and I will advise you to stop coming to political meetings in my house. Our support will move immediately to Soludo,” he said.

While the race is still being adjudged to be a three-way race between the candidates of APGA, LP and APC, Sir Paul Chukwuma, an APC aspirant has speedily moved to Young Progressives Party (YPP), dragging along with him a sizeable number of members of APC. Already, there is crisis in the APC as some aspirants who withdrew have vowed to ensure that they fight the winner of the ticket, who they believe won through unjust process. While Chukwuma has moved to YPP, another aspirant, Mr Valentine Ozigbo, who witnessed the primary to the very end has petitioned the party’s primary election appeal committee, alleging irregularities in the primary election and terming it a scam.

On the other hand, Labour Party last weekend held another primary presided over by the Usman-led caretaker executive, as against that conducted by the Abure-led executive, which was done in defiance to the Supreme Court judgement, which sacked Abure.

In last weekend’s primary election, Mr John Nwosu who had rejected participation in the Abure-led primary joined the contest. He contested against a member of the State House of Assembly, Hon Jude Umennajiego but lost. Umennajiego was declared winner after he polled 180 votes, as against Nwosu’s 69 votes.

In the meantime, Soludo, Ukachukwu, Chukwuma and Moghalu/Umennajiego are expected to slug it out during the November, 2025 gubernatorial poll. While Ukachukwu, Soludo and Moghalu hail from the Southern senatorial zone, Chukwuma and Umennajiego are from the North. There is also speculation that Umennajiego is a placeholder for a candidate from the northern zone. Anambra South Senatorial Zone has remained the zone favoured by the zoning formula of the state, and the victory of anyone of the candidates may also be dependent on the zone they come from, and other factors that govern election of governors in the state. Some of these other factors include christian denomination of the candidate, their level of education and others.

For years, these have become an unwritten law where every governor of the state have always come from the Catholic Church, while his deputy comes from the Anglican church, which forms the second largest population in the state.

In the case of the three candidates, while Soludo belongs to the Catholic stock and has already renominated his deputy, DrOnyekachiIbezim, an Anglican as running mate,  Moghalu of Labour Party belongs to the Anglican stock, while Ukachukwu of APC is of the Pentecostal bloc.

In the area of educational qualifications, Anambra prides itself as the state of the first graduate commissioned soldier in the Nigerian Army in the person of ChukwuemekaOdumegwuOjukwu; first indigenous Vice Chancellor of a university in Nigeria, Prof Kenneth Dike; the state that produced the Chinua Achebes, the Philip Emeaghalis, the ChimamandaAdichies and many more, and as such cannot come low to be governed by anyone less.

For now, all the candidates who won their parties’ primary have begun to marshal out plans to lead their parties to victory.

Soludo after he was presented the certificate of return said: “We as a party have grown from strength to strength. We are the first registered progressive party in Nigeria and our people have taken APGA as their own. Anambra is APGA and APGA is Anambra. I want to say that I am humbled by this historic display of solidarity to be able to fly the flag of our party again, and I want to say that I accept this nomination whole heartedly.

“Anambra keeps rising with the progressive leadership that we have had through APGA, and I will continue to appreciate the leadership of the party. In 2021, Anambra interviewed all the candidates and employed me, and all through the journey, three years down the line, you have been able to give us support. That is why we have been able to do what we do, which people say is magical. When I took oath of office, I promised not to let Anambra down, not to let my supporters down, not to let my family down, and not to let APGA down. We are working 247 to ensure that. Many people have said we do not have any opposition, but I say that we will not only win all the 21 local governments but the 326 wards. Someone said we should even aim for all the polling units in the state. We want to make a statement.”

On the other hand, the LabourParty  candidate, Moghalu while reacting to his victory, said: “The party’s trust in me will not be misplaced as the defining moment for Anambra has come. It is the time to build a prosperous and an inclusive state for ourselves, and I urge you all to come together let’s make it happen.”

His counterpart in the other faction of the party, Umennajiego said: “We want to use Anambra as a test case for our preaching about turning Nigeria from a consumption to a production nation.”

In like manner, Ukachukwu told supporters while accepting his election as APC candidate that: “I call on my fellow contestants to unite and rally around my candidacy. The most important thing now is to deliver Anambra to the APC. I have a longstanding influence in Anambra politics.

I have been instrumental to the emergence of successive governors in Anambra over the years. I have played the role of a godfather, but now, I am ready to father myself. I assure party members and the people of Anambra of my unwavering commitment to their trust. I pledge not to disappoint them as I prepare to challenge the incumbent Governor, Prof Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance.”