By Okechukwu Onuegbu

The widow of the late Odumegwu Ojukwu and senatorial aspi­rant of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) for Anambra South, Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, has described the recently conducted primary elections of her party as a monu­mental embarrassment.

According to Ojukwu, “Our party is imperiled. This is without doubt APGA’s dark­est hour. At no other time, in the sixteen years that I have been a member of this great political movement, have we, in the course of routine pri­mary exercise, witnessed such despicable level of violence, vote rigging and other unwholesome practices, not to mention the wholesale importation of terror by political desperados intent on hijacking the electoral process at all costs.”

She alleged that her party’s primary election in Anambra South was marred by gross irregularities, intimidation of delegates, excess voting, siege, violence and a theatre of war with several busloads of armed hoodlums invading the ven­ue, firing sporadic gun shots, terrorising delegates with the police firing teargas to repel the assault.

“At every stage there was a concerted subversion of the democratic process with the active connivance of party offi­cials. In many instances, most especially in Imo and Anambra states, no primaries actually took place, but candidates were simply handpicked and issued certificates of return.

“In my own case, I petitioned the Party’s National Assembly Electoral Appeal Panel point­ing out the gross irregularities inherent in my primary election and demanding a cancellation of the exercise in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 and the APGA electoral guidelines for the Primary Elec­tions based on the fact that the total number of votes cast at the voting arena, were more than the total number of accredited delegates, a situation which ordinarily should nullify the pro­cess but I received no response,” he further alleged.

She accused unknown party members of producing a new result sheet for her opponent ostensibly to eradicate the discrepancies and irregularities she highlighted in her petition, vowing that the anomaly could force aggrieved members to abandon the party.

“As a foundation member of this great party and wife of Dim Chukwuemeka Odu­megwu-Ojukwu who gave his all to ensure that this party remains a credible and ideolog­ically focused platform for our people to achieve their political aspirations, I am dismayed at this turn of events. This is not the APGA we used to know. As a member of this party’s Board of Trustees, I am deeply concerned that mercenaries would appear to have hijacked the operations of our party machinery.

“Our harrowing experienc­es, through this process, have exposed to all and sundry the fault lines of this party and the basic truth that APGA cannot endure unless we do something dramatically different. We must reclaim the soul of this party. To remain neutral in this endeav­our is to take sides with the status quo. We must all refuse to abandon APGA to emergency cashiers and political adventur­ers who would appear to have hijacked this party and who neither understand its essence nor subscribe to its ideology. We, the real members of APGA who fought so valiantly will prevail in the end,” Ojukwu hinted.

Source:- Orientaldailies