The National leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has exempted Anambra State chapter of the party from the proposed ward, local government and state congresses that will take place in all the states of the federation.
This it was gathered was to give the party in the state and its members the opportunity to prepare very well for the forthcoming governorship election, billed to hold on November 6.
The state chairman of the party, Mr Basil Ejidike disclosed this to journalists at the state party secretariat in Awka, saying that the national leadership of the party wrote back to it, to grant the request to exempt Anambra from the congresses, until after the election.
The party also told journalists that all issues emanating from the primary election of the party, which held on June 26 and also produced Senator Andy Uba as the governorship candidate have been resolved.
Ejidike while addressing journalists said: “There is no way we can combine the congress of the party and campaigns for the governorship election. So, we held a meeting with the technical committee and applied to the national leadership for them to exempt Anambra State from the Ward, local government and state congresses.
“We wrote to the chairman and we are happy to announce to you that it has been approved by the caretaker chairman. We will commence our own congress immediately after the election in November or earlier December. That is the situation.”
On the issue of the last primary election held in June 26, I can tell you we have a candidate as a result of that primary, and he is Senator Andy Uba. He has a running mate in Barr Emeka Okafor. Okafor is an active politician in Anambra and was once a governorship candidate of PPA (Progressive People’s Alliance) and hails from Nnobi.
“After the primary, there were issues, just like any election anywhere, but there should be ability to resolve the challenges, and we have resolved.
“I am glad to tell you that in APC we have mechanisms to resolve issues and those mechanisms are at work as I speak. The rumour that some people have left the party is not true, we cannot be working on rumour. I have not received any letter of resignation from anyone, so I can not authoritatively tell you that anyone has left the party.”
On the issue of membership registration and revalidation, Ejidike said: “The exercise started in February and ended in May. Before the exercise, APC had a total of 200,000 members in the state, but after the exercise, I am proud and confident to say that we have 500,000 members of APC in Anambra now. What it means is that the party has progressed. I’m talking about real and active party members.
“Of course the exercise is still ongoing. We only had a break during the primary election and now that the primary is over, the exercise will continue. That is the situation regarding the revalidation exercise.
‘May I also tell you that we are preparing very hard for the governorship election. We started to prepare for this election early because we know we did not perform well during the 2019 election. We set up a fact finding committee to know why we did not perform well in 2019, and the committee did a lot of work and that report has been very helpful. We have been following it very diligently, and it has been helping us.”
The state party chairman disclosed that two senators from Anambra were already making moves to join the APC, and that party will officially receive them next week.
“Anambra is gradually becoming a one-party state. Just tell me which big politician in Anambra that is not in APC now? Our people have decided to key into the mainstream politics and also share in the benefit of being in the same party with the centre.
“Senator Joy Emordi a member of PDP BOT just joined APC, and next week we are receiving two more senators. APC is taking over this state. The federal government has done a lot in Anambra State and in the South East, and our people know this,” Ejidike said.
