Anambra Election: Senator Ifeanyi Uba Cautions APC: ".Anambra State Is Not Imo State.."
Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah has sent a note of warning to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to desist from playing any game akin to what transpired in Imo State where Senator Hope Uzodinma, who finished fourth during the last governorship election, was declared winner.
Senator Ifeanyi Ubah gave the warning during a media parley attended by representatives of various news media, both print and online.
Recall that ElombahNews had reported on August 31, 2021, that an APC chieftain in Anambra State revealed a sinister plot by the party to take over Anambra State using any means reasonable or otherwise.
The party chieftain, who requested that his name be withheld, disclosed this during a telephone interview with ElombahNews.
Speaking, he emphatically said: “ APC wants to take Anambra by hook or crook ,” adding that the party plans to repeat the “Supreme Court” scenario it played out in Imo State.
Interestingly, Governor Uzodinma has been appointed the chairman of the Senator Andy Emmanuel Uba campaign organisation, the APC governorship election candidate.
The chieftain stressed that the party did not conduct any primary election that produced Andy Uba as he was on ground monitoring events on behalf of his “friend” who was also a contestant.
His words: “They just want to foist the man [Andy Uba] on Anambra State.
“Before that primaries, Andy Uba confided in one of my close confidants, who is very close to him, that there wasn’t going to be any election, and that the result has already been written which was going to be announced; in fact, that he has gone beyond the primaries.”
Reacting to a question posed by our correspondent during the parley, the senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District at the National Assembly stated categorically that “Anambra is not Imo State.”
He stated: “I don’t think they will try such a nonsense. Its unconstitutional and I don’t think they have the capacity to try it.
“Even if they want to try it, it’s not in Anambra State. That is all I can tell you for now.”
Earlier, he was asked about his position on the threat by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of “No Election in Anambra State”, and he cuts in:
“It is not in the interest of our people and we have to address it. It is never in our interest. If they go through that route, then foreign persons will come and take over the election and we will all lose.
“So at the right time some of these things will be addressed. But for me we are marching for the election.”
When asked if he is already talking with IPOB members or elders of the state, he said:
“Well, there are mechanism we are trying to set up but we have not opened negotiation for now.”
He was also confronted with the allegation proffered by some faceless individuals and groups that he played a part in the arrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
His attention was called to the “news” making rounds on social media alleging his involvement and he had this to say:
“I don’t think so. I have addressed that in my interview with BBC Igbo. I was not in any way, I repeat in any way, involved in the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu. I have no reason to be involved even.”
which is why he is contesting the election to enable him recuperate if he wins, and he replied:
“I don’t know the source of those claims. I make purchases. I pay my bills as at when due. And I do things that even no-one does.
“I play politics that no-one plays. I invest my hard-earned resources. I come in and defeat even people that are using government monies, so how can people say that?
“One basic principle about business is that you don’t bring your business to the public domain.
“I am not a PLC; I don’t have a Public Liability Company. Those companies that I run before I became a senator are all private companies and they are doing very well.
“Those that had issues, honestly speaking, the issues they had were issues of government policies somersault. The engagements they had with government, the government failed to honour its own obligations.
“Presently, there is none of my companies that AMCON is holding or arm-twisting, none.”
You seem very confident of victory in this Anambra election, he was asked.
He said: “I have paid my dues and I know God is on my side. and I have no iota of doubt about the grassroots where my stronghold is.
“Nobody has capacity to match me in that area. So that is my confidence. My confidence is that I understand the need of my people and I’m ready to give it to them.
“I know what they have been lacking and I’m ready to provide it for them.”
On where he will like to see Anambra after four years if he is sworn in, he said:
“Well, Anambra State will change automatically. The current government will be brought down to ten per cent of what we are going to bring in.
“You will see a total new face of a new Anambra.”
He also briefly commented about the registration and capturing of all Young Progressives Party (YPP) members in the state wherein, he said, some one hundred and fifty thousand have been captured electronically while some three hundred thousand were captured manually.
He assured that those captures and real-time members and supporters of the party who are willing to sacrifice time and money just to get registered.