Umahi remains Ebonyi South senatorial candidate, APC says

The Ebonyi State chapter of the All Progressives Congress on Monday insisted that Governor David Umahi remains the party’s candidate for Ebonyi South senatorial district..

The name of Umahi was missing in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s list of senatorial candidates for the 2023 general elections released recently.

However, the state APC described the absence of the governor’s name in the list as a minor error from the commission and had been corrected.

The state APC Chairman, Chief Stanley Okoro-emegha, spoke during interactions with journalists in Abakaliki, on Monday.

According to him, after the initial election which Umahi did not participate in was conducted, another election, duly monitored by officials of the INEC and security agencies, was held and Umahi emerged as the winner of the election.

He said that another aspirant in the first election, Ann Agom-Eze, withdrew from the contest.

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Okoro-emegha said, “APC duly submitted the Governor’s name. The mistake did not come from the party. The necessary things were done; the stepping down of the two candidates that contested for that senatorial election was there with the party and the INEC.

“INEC was invited for the re-conduction because there was enough time for the party to re-conduct another primary election that will usher in another person. And the re-conduction of the election was done, the video clips are there, all the necessary security agencies and the ministries that were supposed to be there were there on the day of the re-conduction of the senatorial candidate primaries of APC in Ebonyi South.

“And then a panel was set up at the national secretariat Abuja and they arrived we took them to Afikpo which is the venue for the election, they did all the necessary things, the delegates that were supposed to participants of the primaries were all there.

“Mind you and watch very well that the particular column was blank, so there wasn’t an issue. If you like I can still forward the list of the states that had issues and the possible substitution they made because the national office of the party can not afford to leave any particular space vacant.

“Anybody carrying any other news is carrying it on their own. But I went to Abuja, I called them and asked them what happened and they traced it and saw where it was coming from and it was immediately corrected.”