Although a year away from now, Hardlines Nigeria has reliably gathered that a number of gladiators in the All Progressives Congress, Anambra State Chapter have begun putting up structures to ensure they notch the APC flag for the November 2017 elections.
Among those who have already indicated interest in picking the party’s ticket include the likes of Engineer Bart Nwibe, Hon. Tony Nwoye, Chike Obidigbo and George Moghalu.
The quartet mentioned above have begun consulting with stakeholders of the party at the national and state levels with the intention of garnering immense support towards claiming the party ticket.
The aspirants who are well known by party members in the state have set up skeletal campaign structures with the intention of getting prepared for the primaries which will hold in September next year.
However, Hardlines gathered that the intending aspirants are being careful as they rally around stakeholders in order not to put too much resources at this early stage. This is due to the fact that it is still too early in the race for a lot of stakeholders in the state to queue up with any aspirant without reading properly the body language of the president and some national stakeholders in the party.
Also in question is the possible candidature of the current Minister of Labour, Senator Chris Ngige. This is because it is perceived that should the Alor born politician decide to contest then they may not have the edge as he is considered a veteran of the game.
However,it is reliably gathered that a number of stakeholders are not receptive to the idea of Ngige running again and would rather settle for a new face. These stakeholders have largely decried the monopolistic hold of the party by Ngige and beleive that a new face for the party would make the party more acceptable and open it up for more persons to join.
Again, the reports that the current governor of the state is also interested in joining the party might throw a spanner in the works of these aspirants as the aspirants believe that should Obiano come into the APC then it will only take a miracle to get the ticket as the APC constitution automatically confers on him the party’s leadership, enabling him to maneuver his way to the ticket to the detriment of the other aspirants.
Meanwhile, the APC and APGA have clashed on the APC’s ability to defeat APGA at the 2017 polls.
This was the reaction of the SA on Youths to Governor Willie Obiano, Hon Tony Uche Ezekwelu.
Ezekwelu descibed the APC challenge as a joke, stating that there was no vacancy in the Government House Awka, following Obiano’s sterling achievements in agriculture, security, infrastructure, commerce, trade and industrialization.
Ezekwelu said: “It baffles me that with the performance of Governor Willie Obiano which is visible for all to see that some persons in the APC are still day dreaming of running for governor. Governor Obiano has in the past two years done so well that if it is possible for all the parties to adopt him as their candidate they would do so and ought to do so to ensure that the man finishes the good works he has begun.”
“This is a man who the Federal Government on a number of occasions has praised and has used him as a model for governance. The other day the Minister for Agriculture was here to see for himself the miraculous achievements been made in agriculture under his leadership.”
“This is man described as the best governor within the federation, a man at home with the grassroots and the elites in the state.”
“Even the vehicle for such a project as futile as this, which is the APC is non existent in the state and unacceptable to the people of Anambra.”
But the secretary of the APC, Hon Chukwuma Agufugo described the Governor Obianos’ administration as a failure and one built on lies.
He described the administration as the worst ever in the state and said that the people of Anambra were willing to change the administration via the ballot box.
He said that with the quality of aspirants within the APC, it was a done deal that the state would breathe under a new lease of life.
state.
A source said Ekwunife has also been intensifying efforts to get the sole ticket of the party on the argument that she has missed the senatorial contest on the platform of the party.
Culled from with additional report from hardlines.com
