THE leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Anambra State hinted on Friday that two serving senators in the state would soon defect to the party ahead of the November 6, 2021 governorship election in the state.
This came as the party said it now has a registered membership of 500,000 following the party’s registration and revalidation exercise across the state, which took place between February and May, 2021.
The state chairman of APC, Chief Basil Ejidike, who hinted at the impending defection, however, did not give the names of the two senators. Only on Wednesday, a former senator in the state and member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Joy Emodi defected to APC.
Apart from Senator Ifeanyi Ubah representing Anambra South, who is the governorship candidate of YPP, the other two serving senators in Anambra State are Senator Stella Oduah representing Anambra North and Senator Uche Ekwunife representing Anambra Central and both were elected on the platform of PDP. Ekwunife was also a governorship aspirant of PDP, although she and others lost to Mr. Valentine Ozigbo, who is the PDP candidate.
Ejidike added that the 500000 membership was a remarkable improvement from the party’s membership before the commencement of the exercise.
He said: “Before the exercise, APC membership was about 200,000, but after the exercise, I am proud and confident to announce that we now have about 500,000 members of APC in Anambra State.
“What it means is that the party has progressed from a little above 200,000 to above 500,000. I am talking of real active party members, which shows that we are on course. Although the exercise is still ongoing we had a break during the governorship primary and since the primary is over, the exercise will continue. But the fact remains that before we went into that break, we had total registered members of above 500,000.”
On the governorship primary, Ejidike said Senator Andy Uba remains the candidate of APC, while his running mate is Barrister Emeka Okafor. Okafor, he added, is an active politician and was once the governorship candidate of PPA and hails from Nnobi in Idemili South local government area.
He said that although there were some issues after the primaries just like in any election, the problems that arose were being resolved.
“What matters is the ability to resolve issues that arise after the election. I am glad to say that APC has put in place mechanisms for resolving internal issues and those mechanisms are presently at work.
“There were rumours that some people have left the party, but unfortunately, as the state chairman of APC, I have not received any resignation letter from any member of the party and we cannot be relying on rumours or hearsay.
“Since I have not received any resignation letter from anybody, I cannot authoritatively say that anybody has left the party. This is the official position and I want to assure everybody that whatever problem we have is being handled by the party leadership.”
He said that with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of its ruling on the Ondo State governorship matter, the issue of the leadership of Governor Mai Mala Bunu-led caretaker committee and extraordinary convention planning committee has been resolved.
Ejidike added that having realized the poor performance of APC during the 2019 general elections in Anambra State, the party is working hard to correct all the anomalies, assuring that President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance in the South East would help APC to emerge victorious in the November 6 governorship election.