The National Director of Operations, Presidential Campaign Council for the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Mr Afam Enemokwu, has accused the leadership of the party of abandoning its presidential candidate, Prof Peter Umeadi, and other candidates, during Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
Enemokwu alleged that the party leadership, led by the Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, failed to do the needful to ensure the victory of the party’s candidates.
The Independent National Electoral Commission on Tuesday declared candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, as the winner of presidential election in Anambra State.
Obi, who is a former governor of Anambra, polled 584,621 votes and won in all the 21 local government areas of the state.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, came distant second with 9,036 votes.
The presidential candidate of APGA, which is the ruling party in Anambra, came third with 7,388 votes.
Indeed, APGA candidate got zero vote at Polling Unit 017, Agu Awka Ward located in the Government House, which was won by Obi.
Speaking to newsmen on Monday, APGA’s chieftain, Enemokwu, said the party’s leadership were to blame for its abysmal outing at the polls.
He accused the Soludo-led leadership of failure to fund the party.
He said, “Our presidential candidate is more qualified to win the election, because he has all it takes to be president of Nigeria, but we did not do what we were supposed to do before now due to lack of funds, which is the only problem we had in the presidential election.
“No doubt, Umeadi actually showed in his personal capacity that he could do it, but the party and the governor, who was elected on APGA platform, has not shown him any support; in fact, the party leadership abandoned him.
“Well since the inauguration of the APGA Presidential Campaign Council, which cuts across all levels of the party, we were not invited for a meeting, we were not given direction, there was no funding, so the APGA faithful are disappointed and frustrated that nothing, as it used to be, has come from the people up there.
“From day one, particularly the governor, sidelined me and the presidential candidate. The governor is not interested, he has not even received me; I went to see him, my name was listed in the manifest, he knew I was coming, his Deputy Chief of Staff even called me and said my name was on the manifest. I went and stayed for three hours but the governor refused to see me.”
Contacted, Soludo’s Press Secretary, Mr Christian Aburime, denied that the governor abandoned the party and its candidates.
Aburime said, “It is not true that Soludo abandoned APGA and its candidates. As the leader of the party, on which platform he became the governor, the onus lies on the governor to support his party’s candidates and that is what he is doing.”
