Anambra: 25 Political Parties Set to Adopt ACPN’s Ojiba as Consensus Candidate
AWKA/Nigeria: No fewer than 25 political parties and their candidates out of the 37 in total who fielded candidates for the November 18 governorship election have opted to adopt a sole candidate ahead of the poll.
Their move to support one candidate for the election became necessary, according to them, in order to defeat the so called big parties.
The development arose out of what some Interparty Advisory Council (IPAC) members and their candidates in the election described as intimidation from the self-acclaimed big parties and their candidates, have continued to shun their programmes.
The self-acclaimed big parties that boycotted the IPAC activities were listed as the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), and United Peoples Party (UPP).
IPAC member parties and their candidates accused them of shunning the recent debate organised by the Interparty Advisory Council, while it was alleged that they never cared to communicate with the organisers on the reason for their absence.
A source spoke on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the development, disclosed that the over 25 parties who participated in the debate entered into series of meetings after the governorship debate session where idea came on the dare need for them to seek ways to work together by pulling their human and fiscal resources into backing one candidate who has the capacity to give the self-proclaimed mega parties a good fight and eventually defeat them at the forthcoming election.
“This will be likened to the case of Goliath and David in the Bible where the so-called mighty fell to the neglected. The five mega parties, most especially the APGA, PDP and APC, look at us as if we are pretenders in the race.
“But they failed to realise that politics is still a game of numbers. If we play our cards well and drop selfish considerations aside, our coalition will defeat all those parties some people erroneously think are the real contenders. It will surprise them when we do it” the source said.
Asked if it was not an obvious gang up for the sake of wrestling political power, the source said, “No, it’s a determination to rescue Anambra and make the lives of our people better.
“There is so much suffering in the land because of bad governance and we have candidates with track record of touching lives of people around them”, the source added.
Another source revealed that on the possible candidate that will emerge out of the coalition, it was gathered that the permutations are between Obiora Stephen Mbah of the PRP and Akunwata Ojiba Ejoh of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN.
However the odd seems to favour Akunwata Ojiba since he comes from Onitsha zone, the Anambra North.
Mbah of PRP is from Anambra Central whose zone just relinquished power after straight eleven years between Obi and Ngige as governors.
Akunwata Ojiba, a retired Customs Officer, sources say has shown visible presence and above the average seriousness with his party (ACPN) in a very aggressive campaign and endorsements across the three senatorial zones of the state.
It was reliably gathered that the coalition has as its chairman, Barrister Basil Onuora of the Green Party of Nigeria and Mr. Chris Nweke of AAPP as Secretary.
However, the executive members of the coalition have maintained sealed lips on the development, urging newsmen to wait for an official date for the unveiling of the coalition’s agenda.
But some other parties who are also actively committed to the actualisation of the coalition’s objective include ACD, BNPP, PDC, DPC, among others.
Akunwata Ojiba has been on a noiseless campaign and grassroots mobilisation ahead of the election.
