A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Anambra state Valentine Ozigbo says Chukwuma Soludo, the state governor is scared of contesting with him, saying the state helmsman is poised to destroy his party.
Ozigbo said it was based on this fear that Governor Soludo sponsored Nicholas Ukachukwu to clinch the APC governorship ticket with the intention of destabilizing the APC in the state ahead the governorship election later this year.
The APC chieftain made the remark on Channels Television programme’Politics Today’ on Friday, alleging that Governor Soludo is “funding Nicholas Ukachukwu” to weaken the APC.
The magazine reported that Ozigbor recently lost the APC ticket to Ukachukwu after the former PDP governorship candidate poled a measly 67 votes to Ukachukwu’s 1, 445 votes who clinched the APC governorship ticket. Ozigbo came a distant second during the primary election.
The former PDP governorship candidate however blamed his opponent’s emergence on the support of Governor Soludo, who he claimed is afraid to face him in the guber election.
He also claimed to have defeated Governor Soludo during the last guber election in the state, which the incumbent won, after the Electoral Umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC declared Soludo who contested under APGA the winner of the election.
He pointed out that the governor is afraid “of me becoming a candidate” saying opinion polls conducted in the state indicate that he’s the preferred candidate.
Ozigbo: “Soludo is funding Nicholas (Ukachukwu) to weaken APC and the only way we can prove this is invite all of us here and bring Bible to swear.
“Unfortunately, when you have certain intelligence, am I going to give you the source? Who is Nicholas Ukachukwu?
“How come he has never won anything since after he became house of rep member in Abuja here? How come every single election he shows up? How come?”
He added that he’s still consulting with the APC leadership on the Ukachukwu’s candidature adding that he would not allow the “impunity” to go unchallenged, noting that he has the better chance of winning the election for the APC, and would not allow himself to be cheated the second time after he was allegedly rigged out for Soludo to emerge governor four years ago.
“I have it on good authority about what happened (that he defeated Soludo) long after it happened. But I called Governor Soludo the same day and I said congratulations.
“I moved on. I didn’t go to tribunal, I didn’t go to court to challenge him. I moved on.
“In this case, the wrong is so severe that I’m asking myself to allow this impunity to continue? No, I am going to engage further with the party,” Ozigbo said.
It remains to be seen how much Ozigbo can do to change the current situation in his party in Anambra state, particularly as regards Ukachukwu’s candidature as the APC is currently neck-deep on how to upstage Governor Soludo and his party, APGA in the guber election slated for later this year.
Meanwhile, Christian Aburime, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Soludo has described Ozigbo’s allegation as “laughable” urging him to leave the governor out of the problems in his party.
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