Ebonyi APC Crisis: Aggrieved Members Storm Buhari’s Enugu Rally To Protest Imposition Of Guber Candidate

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News, Nigeria 2015 Election Monday, January 12th, 2015

From Ignatius Okpara – Scores of supporters and members of opposition All Progressives Congress, (APC) in Ebonyi State weekend took their continued protest against move to impose Senator Julius Ucha, as the state governorship candidate of the party to the presidential campaign rally in Enugu.

The aggrieved Ebonyi APC members, comprising men and women, who came in more than15 commuter buses, pleaded with the APC leadership not to risk losing the Ebonyi governorship election to rival Labour Party, (LP) by fielding Ucha as the party’s candidate for the February 28, 2015 election.

They insisted that the former Chairman of Ebonyi State Universal Basic Education Board, (EBUBEB) Chief Austin Igwe Edeze, was the duly elected governorship candidate during the primary, stressing that Ucha used violence to change the outcome of the primary to impose himself on the party.

According to them, Ucha has become a serial loser after losing the gubernatorial election in 2007, and 2011, noting that after becoming election weary, his supporters have left him to join the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) LP and All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA).

Brandishing placards with various inscriptions such as “we don’t want Ucha”, the protesters charged APC to maintain the winning prospects spreading around the country by doing the right thing in Ebonyi as was exemplified by the national convention of the party in Lagos which produced Buhari as the presidential candidate.

They also alleged that six candidates who won the party’s primaries and had their names published were surreptitiously replaced by Ucha’s cronies, and wondered how such anomalies should be taking place in a progressive platform like APC.

Other inscriptions on the placards read: “We want genuine change in Ebonyi, no to Ucha”, “APC give us Edeze, win Ebonyi governorship”, “Ucha is a product of self-imposition”, “We don’t want Ucha as APC governorship candidate in Ebonyi”, APC flag in Ucha’s is a recipe for defeat in Ebonyi” among others.

African Examiner recalled that the crisis in Ebonyi APC, which started during the party’s membership registration trailed the state congress and primary election.

However, attempts by the APC National Working Committee to organize a fresh congress was botched by a restraining order and litigations in court.

Since after the primary election in the state, Chief Edeze has insisted that Senator Ucha who contested the governorship in 2011 under the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party, (ANPP) instigated the violent shooting that disrupted the process to inflate the ballot boxes, a claim which Ucha denied saying that Edeze was his friend and brother.