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National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Edozie Njoku, has ruled out fresh primaries to replace candidates that recently withdrew from participating in 2023 general elections on the party’s platform.
He warned APGA stakeholders not to fall for antics of those whose stock in trade is to cause disharmony, stressing that the public notice announcing fresh primaries was calculated to deceive and divert attention from the true situation of things in the party.
Njoku spoke to journalists in Abuja, yesterday, against the backdrop of a statement credited to the former APGA Chairman, Victor Oye, calling for fresh applications for the party’s nomination forms.
In a statement by his National Organising Secretary, Ifeanyi Mbaeri, Oye had disclosed that fresh primaries will be conducted on August 2 and 3, 2022, to select new candidates to substitute State House of Assembly and governorship candidates that voluntarily withdrew.
The statement added that nomination fees for the fresh candidates are N500, 000.00 and N5, 000, 000.00, respectively, for state assembly and governorship positions.
“In strict compliance with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) timetable and schedule of activities for 2023 general elections, APGA has fixed fresh primaries to hold on August 2 and 3, 2022, respectively, for the nomination of fresh candidates to replace withdrawn state House of Assembly and governorship candidates,” the statement declared.
But, insisting that there is no such plan, Njoku, who was recently enrolled by the Supreme Court ruling that his purported suspension by Jude Okoye was non-justiciable, warned APGA faithful to avoid the bait.
He stressed that any stakeholder that pays any money to Oye should consider him of herself being scammed. He added: “We all know who Oye is; he will use any opportunity to collect money from party faithful.
“Most of the candidates have identified with the authentic structure of APGA, which is the one we lead. So, what he is planning with the illegal fresh primaries is to manipulate desperate aspirants from the People Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to illegally fill those gaps created by candidates that have switched allegiance to us as the authentic APGA leadership.”