By Thompson Agu in Abuja
The die is cast for the aspirants seeking for the governorship ticket of the Imo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC as the National Working Committee, NWC of the party, has taken over the matter.
Uncertainty has enveloped the governorship primaries even as few of the aspirants lay claim to the victory.
The cloudy situation surrounding the primaries has given Doom for the party national headquarters to take over conduct, even as reports emerged that a consensus candidate will be chosen among the contestants with the exclusion of two major players involved in the primaries, Chief Uche Nwosu and Senator Hope Uzodinma.
Sources within the party office in Abuja revealed to our correspondent that the Presidency and national officers are disturbed by the troubles arising from the discordant tunes in Imo APC, especially the troubles arising from the conduct of the botched primaries.
It would be recalled that apart from producing different persons laying claims to the ticket, the APC primaries was engulfed with crisis arising from irregularities.
A signal that the party may go on its way to choose a consensus candidate emerged two days ago when Oshiomole announced the indefinite suspension of the primaries.
According to the APC chairman who spoke to State House correspondents, the results being paraded were fake ones adding that the committee led by Gulak has been suspended for a new one.
Trumpeta observed that after the disagreements on the conduct, the committee chairman, Ahmed Gulak announced Senator Hope Uzodinma as winner, while those he left behind before running to Abuja to announce result also gave Uche Nwosu victory.
But after meeting with the President, Oshiomole described the result of the outcome as fake. According to him “it was gathered that in order not to heat up the polity in Imo APC and allow the party and members go up in flames ahead the 2019 elections, the major warring factions wanting to be governor who have been declared winners in the cancelled results may be asked to step aside and allow others stand election which shall the winner may be decided through concensus method.
A party leader and national officer of APC in Abuja told our correspondent in Abuja that because of time and other reasons, a concensus candidate different from Uzodinma and Nwosu may emerge. The party leader who does not want name mentioned further said. “The Imo State APC is worrying everybody here in Abuja including the Presidency. That’s why our chairman went to see Mr President, Buhari. From all indications, we are rejecting the two acclaimed results. The two persons mentioned will likely step aside to allow a neutral candidate not affiliated to any of the factions in the party”
The party leader also revealed that the avoidance of the Uzodinma is to pave way for peace.
“You know the battle is between Governor Okorocha and others known as the Coalition who are against the governor producing the son-in-law as APC ticket bearer. So, what the party will do to bring peace is to stop the major leaders of the factors including Okorocha’s son in-law and allow others to file in for considering”, the source told Trumpeta in the Abuja office.
The party leaders view of stopping Nwosu and Uzodinma for a consensus candidate is manifested in the words of Oshiomole who further stated that there will be no room for parallel result from state that APC in Imo regardless of the powers that are behind any of the groups will reflect the wish of the generality of the party members.
Information reaching the newspaper has it that those not on any of the factions and running for the governorship shall be considered.
Meanwhile the chairman/Returning officer for the Imo State governorship primary elections under the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak has stood to his ground to say that the already pronounced result remain valid.
According to the information obtained from Vanguard newspaper, Alhaji Gulak not only debunked the claims by the party’s National chairman that the result submitted after the election is fake, also said the result submitted was genuine as it was done on a credible, free and fair means.
He said, “I don’t want to join issues with my national chairman. The result I submitted was not fake, is not fake and cannot be fake.”
He also stated that if there were issues with the result, the party has its own mechanism to sort out the issues.
He claimed that attempts were made to compromise the process in the state though he refused to disclose the attempts, he, however said, “Time will come when I will say what happened.”
He alleged that some members of the Electoral Panel were abducted by the governor on arrival as according to him the panel members did not follow the governor to the government house with their full consent.
He also justified the reason for announcing the result of the primaries in Abuja, raising security concerns.
It was believed that announcing the result outside Owerri did not in any way invalidate the exercise in as much as it was conducted in accordance with the party guidelines.
He said there was no way the result of the primaries could have been announced in Owerri because of the situation on ground and that he took the declaration of the result to Abuja based on privileged security information that compelled him to leave the state immediately.
Gulak added, “I had to leave Owerri with four or five of my members that did not disappear,” he said.
It would be recalled that according to the results announced by Gulak, Senator Hope Uzodinma polled a total number of 423,895 votes, seconded by Prince Eze Madumere that had 128,325 votes, among the 9 aspirants under APC.
