Ukwuani APC Denies Disqualification of Vice Chairman Candidate
OBIARUKU/Nigeria: The All Progressive Congress, APC, Ukwuani Local Government Chapter had denied the news going round, mostly on social media of the disqualification of their Vice Chairmanship candidate for the March 6, State Local Government Elections, Mr. Onah Onyeka Success.
In a Statement made available to Ndokwa Reporters, the statement called on the members to remain calm, as nothing of such had happened.
“Sequel to the information trending in the social media on the invalidation of Mr. Onah Onyeka Success by Delta State Independent Electoral Commission, DSIEC as the All Progressive Congress Vice Chairmanship Candidate for Ukwuani Local Government Area 2021 election, we wish to call on our supporters to remain calm and disregard this evil act by some enemies of progress who are bent on sabotaging the change Ukwuani deserves.’
“The news of this invalidation remains null as DSIEC is yet, as at the time of this publication, Thursday, February 4th, 2021, to write an official letter stating the grounds on which Mr. Onah Onyeka Success was purportedly invalidated. Thus, it remains a rumour orchestrated by some mongers working in tandem with the agency to sabotage the change Ukwuani people are clamouring for.”
It stated further that, it is important to inform the general public on the issue between Mr. Onah Onyeka and the APM. There was an allegation forwarded to DSIEC by the state Chairman of APM requesting DSIEC to disqualify Onah Onyeka candidacy with APC on the grounds of dual nomination. It is worthy of note that Mr. Onah was never at any time a card-carrying member of the APM and was never in any way a councillorship candidate of the APM as claimed and remains an accusation (See attached Affidavit of Fact and handwritten Letter of Disclaimer to DSIEC)
According to the petition written, APM claimed that Mr. Onah was nominated as their candidate on the 5th of January 2021 as against his emergence as the Vice Chairmanship candidate of the APC on January 4, 2021.
Except someone is attempting to turn logic on its head, Mr. Onah couldn’t have requested to represent APM after emerging as the Vice Chairmanship candidate of the APC. Hence, a mere indication of interest before the 24th of December 2020 was capitalised by some evil and anti-progressive elements attempt to sabotage this dream.
On this cause, we remain firm and in all acceptance agree that this purported invalidation by DSIEC is nothing but a malicious and fraudulent attempt at winning an election through the back door.
The following are the reasons for this stand:
- Mr. Onah Onyeka never screened as a councillorship aspirant and by virtue of his absence in the screening, he was supposed to be disqualified as a councilorship candidate haven not presented himself to be screened for that purpose as required by DSIEC, however, despite an affidavit by Mr. Onyeka to the effect that he is not a member of APM and not running for any election under the party, which was received and acknowledged by DSIEC on Monday 19th January 2021, it is shameful to note that the body still went on to publish his name as a successfully screened candidate of APM. Is this not fraudulent? Can someone be successful when he did not appear before the body to be screened?
- The same DSIEC successfully screened Mr. Onah as a Vice Chairmanship aspirant on 13th January 2021 and published his name as a successful candidate to become the running mate of Chidi O. Uwabuofu come 6th March 2021. This was after Mr. Onah appeared to be screened by DSIEC and presented his documents to the electoral body.
- DSIEC obviously has been compromised as there was no official statement to the APC any reason(s) for this purported invalidation. They however resorted to this open publication to dent the image of the candidate, the APC, and that of the supporters.
- The invalidation was trending in the social media rather than the appropriate medium, thus, it is malicious intent by both DSIEC and APM.
At this point, it is necessary to let all our teeming supporters and progressives in Ukwuani that the alleged invalidation of the nomination of my running mate, Mr. Onah Onyeka Success by DSIEC is obnoxious, baseless, ridiculous, and fraudulent.
I wish you state unequivocally that there is no cause for alarm as the matter is being reviewed by our legal team. We, therefore, request our supporters to remain calm, focused, and continue to believe in this quest to rescue our Ukwuani from another journey of the downtrodden and prebendal era.
We have seen the political craft of the opposition and we are ready to ensure a stop to this monopolistic dominance and obvious underdevelopment. Interestingly, they are inadvertently making us more popular.
