A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Sam Onuigbo, who won the Senatorial primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for Abia Central and whose name was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has raised alarm over the attempt to substitute genuinely elected candidates by certain forces within the party.
Hon. Onuigbo however waved aside all doubts and controversies over who is the APC’s Senatorial candidate for Abia Central Senatorial district for which he bought Party nomination form, contested and won the primary.
According to him; “As a confirmation of the fact that I was the candidate of the party, I was issued with Form EC9 from INEC which is given to only successful candidates.
“I was asked to complete the form and returned it on June 14, which I did. After returning it, it was acknowledged by one of the officers there, Emmanuel or so. After that, I was required to sign in a column where my name was already indicated as a candidate and was also required to put in my phone number.
“On that document, my name was listed as number one, Senator Orji Uzo Kalu was number two. He signed before me and then Blessing Nwagba and I also signed and put my phone number. So, I believed everything was going well, until June 16th, when they released the list of candidates for the election to represent the APC,” he said.
Onuigbo further said that the painstaking detailed Electoral Act, 2022 makes it virtually impossible for the name of any candidate who emerged through primary to be substituted by another person who ab-initio was never part of the Senatorial Primary Election for Abia Central Senatorial Ticket or elsewhere.
The lawmaker explained that to do such a thing would be displaying political gangsterism which the Electoral Act 2022 would not tolerate.
He pointedly described the attempt to subvert the will of the people as ‘pure political gangsterism’, stressing that the attempt to snatch and hijack a position that he legally won and give to another that did not participate in the election cannot stand and must not be allowed to stand.
He also said; “After the election, they now sit and use resources that they are getting from their loots from their fraudulent conduct to now fight the genuine candidate. So, it is important for this to be stopped before the general election. The provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 are unambiguous.
“The Electoral Act 2022 is explicit in its provisions either in section 29. If you read towards the end of that 29, you will find that it is a requirement that parties must hold valid primaries for their candidates to emerge. If you go to section 84, sub-section 1, it also states that any political party seeking to nominate a candidate to stand for election, such party shall conduct primaries for the aspirants for any elective position and that such primary election shall be monitored by the commission, in this case, INEC.
“So, to now see that one, this individual did not participate in a valid primary as provided in section 29 or that this individual was not part of the primaries completely.
“Chief Emeka Atuma stood for the gubernatorial election in the two factions of APC in Abia. In the one conducted by Ikechi Emenike which he came second and in the gubernatorial primary won by Chief Uche Ogah, where he came third.
“So, to see that he is now a senatorial candidate is one of the strangest things. It is one strange development that we should not be talking about in this day and age, especially with all the improvements that we have made. “It is now up to INEC and the party to correct this grievous mistake,” he contended.
Onuigbo, who is presently representing Ikwuano/Umuahia North and South Federal Constituency stressed that he finds it strange that his names could be substituted in a most bizarre manner, stressing that how can someone who did not buy nomination forms for the Senate and did not participate in the preliminary processes that include completion of form, submitting, participation in screening and clearance by the party, from nowhere have his name listed to substitute a valid candidate.
“It is one of the strangest things I have ever seen. It is so shocking. I defeated my closest opponent, Chief Ikoh by 157 to 152 votes. That was it. The panel submitted their report to the office of the National Organising Secretary, which was signed by five of them.
“The election was held on Sunday, May 29 due to some bottlenecks which forced the chairman of the Senate primary election panel from Abuja, Hon. Izu Okeke to reschedule the election for that day:
“They listed those of us who were returned or elected as candidates for the three senatorial zones, namely, Chief Sam Onuigbo for Abia Central; Senator Orji Uzo Kalu, Abia North and Blessing Nwagba for Abia South. The office of the National Organising Secretary received the results and acknowledge them,” he said.
He further said; “On June 6, 2022, according to the letter given to me, it was received by one Sabiru Bello, who I believe is an Assistant Director. I recall that they didn’t give me that document immediately; it was when I went there severally to get the document to show that they have finished with the election, that they gave me a copy showing that it has been acknowledged”.
