By Praise Chinecherem
South East Organizing Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Dozie Ikedife (jnr) has assured the party’s willingness to welcome Governor Chukwuma Soludo to the party any day he decides to join.
He however said he would not be assured of automatic ticket in the next year’s governorship election.
Speaking during an interview, Ikedife assured that APC would present a credible candidate to be at the helm of affairs to ensure Anambra enjoyed dividends of democracy.
He said, “If by tomorrow Governor Soludo runs to the APC, that the party would not discriminate against him except that he would not be assured of automatic ticket.
“If anybody joins the APC, we will receive the person. If it is somebody that has shown incompetence we will receive the person but may not allow the person fly the flag of the APC because APC is going to present a credible candidate to be at the helm of affairs so that Anambra can begin to enjoy dividends of democracy. That’s what will happen in 2025.”
On getting a governorship hopeful that could be good, competent and generally accepted to win the election for the party, the Organising secretary assured that the party has lots of credible and competent members to fill the gap.
He disclosed that the APC already has people that have indicated interest in governorship of Anambra State.
“I supported my brother Senator Ifeanyi Ubah to be the replacement for the current Governor of Anambra State but unfortunately he is no more.
“However, we in the party are moving forward and we will find somebody that is as competent, as popular and generally accepted as the Distinguished Senator Ifeanyi Ubah who will come to carry out the manifesto of the APC in Anambra State, “he concluded.
Describing September 28 local government election in Anambra State as a show of shame, Ikedife said it was unfortunate that Soludo engaged in an exercise that could not be accepted anywhere in the world and called it local government election.
He disclosed that his party, the APC, boycotted the election because they predicted that there would not be due process in the exercise, adding that the Governor proved his party right at the end of the day.
He alleged that even the political parties that participated were brutalized.
“I’m very saddened by what happened in my town, Nnewi North Local Government Area where a Councilorship candidate under the platform of Young Progressives Party (YPP), a physically challenged, Hon Okonkwo Onyemaobi was brutalized.
“In most parts of the country, physically challenged persons are treated with a lot of respect. But government and its agents decided in their wisdom or lack of it to brutalize the physically challenged. He was hospitalized because he was teargased by agents of the government. It’s very sad.
“We’re also told that voting did not take place in Nnewi North. I don’t know about other local government areas. Voting did not take place in my ward, and some places where materials came, there were no result sheets.
“I’m not complaining about that because we knew it was going to be like that. Government has proved us right.
“But I’m saddened because of the attack on that YPP Councilorship candidate and I have gone to commiserate with the young man who had his hope on democracy and aspired to represent his people, “he noted.
Mr Ikedife (jnr) said in a democratic setting that people should be allowed to exercise their franchise. He added that what happened on September 28 in Anambra should not be allowed to stand as people did not exercise their franchise.
He said even though the APC opted out, those who wanted to participate should have been allowed to do so.
He declared that his concern was that people were not allowed to vote.
“So, the government is still dancing gwo gwo gwo ngwo with the sensibilities of Anambra people.
“From what the government is doing, we knew from the onset that they don’t have the intention to conduct credible, free and fair local government election.
“We anticipated that they were not prepared and was not going to follow due process.
‘So when we looked at all the indices we knew it was going to be a show of shame. That was why APC went to court to force government to follow due process.
“We agreed that local government election should be done, we have been agitating for local government election but we want our democracy to thrive by following due process.
“If the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission is to conduct any election, it should come up with proper timeline, proper guideline, obeying the rule of law, following established rules and regulations.
“But the State government ignored all of these, so we opted out. We’re still in court and we are law-abiding citizens we are going to wait for the judgment of the case we filed in court.
“Anambra State confirms its illegalities but we can’t stop them physically from swearing in the purported winners of the so-called election. We go to court. The court is there because we have the right and when we get justice everything will be upturned for the interest of citizens of Anambra State.
“We won’t have such recklessness in the upcoming governorship election as exhibited by the State. The governorship election will be conducted by the INEC and the handwriting is everywhere that the electorate in Anambra are tired and are ready for change and we are going to have that change in Anambra. Anambra electorate will elect credible government credible, “he added.
