Umeh accuses Ekwunife of luring APGA members to fight him
The Senator representing Anambra Central senatorial zone, and aspirant of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA in the 2019 senatorial election, Chief Victor Umeh has accused his opponent, Senator Uche Ekwunife of visiting members of his party, luring them to fight him.
Umeh who addressed members of the party in the APGA State secretariat in Anambra during a visit to the executives of the party, urged Ekwunife to rather visit her All Progressives Congress(APC) members for support.
The senator said the only reason Ekwunife was going by night to lure members of APGA with what he described as peanut was because APC has no members in the state, and she needed to go to APGA which almost all members of the state belonged.
He said, “My challengers are now visiting APGA members to lobby to get them to fight me.
“I want to tell her to stop visiting APGA people at night. What she should do is to go and visit her APC people and call for support, not visiting APGA members and giving them peanuts.”
He warned members of the party against anti-party activities, saying that APGA was the only dominant party in the state, and that no politician can win any elective position in the state from another party without the help of members of APGA.
“Our challenge would come from our party men, we have the largest structure here and no party can fight us, but those who will fight us are APGA members.
“If you stay in a party and score own goal, when the winners take the trophy, you will be too ashamed to come and rejoice with them, if you do so secretly, you will be ashamed to show your face publicly.
“The election is going to be tough, we are meeting election riggers who have police, army and INEC to their support, but we will not let them defeat us. Very soon they will begin to submit names of agents, but we want to use this opportunity to tell INEC not to take names of agents from candidates.
“We have been campaigning against this. Ekwunife we know never goes to places where there is due process. She entered APC so she can use police, army and INEC to win election. She did it with PDP, but she can not use APC to do what she used PDP to do.”
The Senator expressed confidence that he has already emerged as a candidate of the party, being the only aspirant to have purchased the party’s nomination and expression of interest forms for the position.
He thanked members of the party for deeming him fit to represent the party as a senator for Anambra Central, thus refraining from purchasing forms to contest the ticket of the party with him.
He said, “11 of my friends, led by the deputy governor, Dr Nkem Okeke contributed N5million to purchase the party’s forms for me. I consider it an honour and privilege. I look back with nostalgia and remember the turbulent journey the party passed through.
“Journey is not going to be easy, Anambra is a tough place. I would have stayed away, considering what I passed through in the last contest. But am continuing because I want to fight for APGA.”
