Idemili North Assembly primary: Paul Okoye thanks Soludo, supporters, affirms supremacy of party

By Ifeizu Joe

An aspirant of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for Idemili North State constituency election for Anambra State House of Assembly, Hon Paul Okoye has thanked the Governor of Anambra, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and all his supporters for their support during last Saturday’s primary election of the party.

Okoye who is popularly known as Ikekanachukwu and also the President General of Ideani community was among the seven aspirants for the Anambra State House of Assembly seat to represent Idemili North constituency.

Though the election had been full of troubles, Okoye polled 4,974 to beat other conteantants, including two former members of the assembly.

A disagreement had however led other aspirants to protest the outcome, leading the stakeholders of the party to resort to a conclave election where one of his challengers, Barr Onochie Chibueze Kingsley who had earlier polled 1930 votes in the earlier declaration was picked as the candidate.

Ikekanachukwu who spoke with journalists on the outcome said he has moved on, thanking the governor for playing a fatherly role in ensuring that the disagreement among the aspirants was settled.

He told THE RAZOR: “I was an aspirant of Idemli North Constituency, Anambra State House of Assembly Primary election that took place on 23rd May 2026. I was declared the winner and returned by INEC. But on Monday 25th May, the executive governor of the state called us for a meeting because of a disagreement that arose.

“The seven aspirants were invited with selected stakeholders. We all gathered at the Light House, Awka in the governor’s office. The issues of what had transpired in the election came up. Hence a candidate must emerge.

“A suggestion came that the seven aspirants vote across board among themselves, and that no aspirant should vote for himself. It is important to note that this exercise, or decision, or process, or method, rather, had already placed me in a disadvantaged position, because, of course, the other aspirants considered me an enemy or maybe a threat, rather. So we went into that process, one of the aspirants, Kingsley Onochie, a lawyer, emerged.

“Be that as it may, I thank Mr. Governor for his intervention, and for restoring peace, unity, and order in Idemili North. The local government has always been a flashpoint of political tussles, but we are happy everything has been resolved. I want to thank him in a special way for the wisdom. I want to thank the Mayor of Idemili North, who was also part of that meeting. I want to thank the stakeholders who were there, and I want to also thank my immediate team, my supporters, both those who supported me and those who did not support me. I want to thank everybody.

“I want to thank in a special way the people of Ideani. This is the closest we have come to that seat, because in the history of Ideani, no one has held that position.

“We will move on, party is supreme and the decision of party is final, especially where the national leader of the party is involved. I am humbled to sit before him while this decision was made. It wasn’t a unilateral decision, so to speak. Rather, he applied wisdom, which eventually was tagged the God factor. Who can question God? Nobody. I cannot question God too.

“The days ahead are bright. The days ahead are big. The days ahead are quite futuristic. And life goes on. The party remains supreme, and we all will come together to work for the party to ensure that the winner emerges in the general election in February next year.

“My special thanks goes to my family as well, whom I denied my presence, during the course of running around and my not being there for them, I hope they understand, and their disappointment is my disappointment. I want everybody who felt disappointed, robbed, or denied the opportunity, especially Ideani people, to embrace peace.

“I want to believe in the aspiration of Mr. Governor, Oluatuegwu, and I promise that I will continue to fight for a new Idemili North to emerge, where civic responsibility becomes the order of the day. I say to God be the glory for whatever has happened, and I look forward to greater days ahead and what we will achieve together. God bless Idemili North. God bless Anambra State and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Thank you,” he said.