By Oginyi Ruth
The Ebonyi State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has debunked reports that some of its House of Assembly candidates for this Saturday’s House of Assembly election has defected to the Peoples Democratic Party.
This is coming barely 24 hours after the endorsement of the state governor, David Umahi, by twenty six gubernatorial candidates of other political parties in the state on Tuesday which also saw some Assembly candidates from the opposition parties in the state defecting to PDP.
APC described as untrue the reported defection of two of its state House of Assembly candidates in the March 9 governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
Ebonyi APC chairman, Mr Eze Nwachukwu, made the clarification on Wednesday while addressing newsmen in Abakaliki, saying that no candidate of the party has left to join PDP or any other party in the state.
Nwachukwu said that the candidates of the party for state assembly election are still with the party and expressed confidence that APC would win in the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.
He refuted the alleged report that the party’s candidates for Ishielu South and Ezza South state constituencies had stepped down for the candidates of the PDP.
According to him, “We don’t have faction candidates in APC in Ebonyi and our candidates for the state House of Assembly election in the forthcoming election are intact and fully prepared for the poll.
“I want to urge the general public to discountenance the said report as it is a mere propaganda designed to deceive the public especially APC supporters in the constituencies.
“Our house is intact and no party candidate of APC in Ebonyi has stepped down for anybody or defected from the party.
“I have met with them severally and together we have been reviewing strategies on how to achieve victory in the coming election.
“Those people you saw on the social media posing as APC candidates who allegedly stepped down and defected to PDP in the affected state constituencies are impostors, they are just impersonating our candidates.”
He added that Messrs Amaechi Odah and Mathew Nwenawor, the alleged flag bearers of the party in Ishielu South and Ezza South state constituencies who purportedly stepped down are not known to the party and were never elected as the party’s candidates.
“Once again, I want to reiterate that the candidates of our party are in tact, there is no defection.
“Our candidates in the two state constituencies are Mr Sunday Omoha and Mr Samuel Onyia of of Ishielu South and Ezza South state constituencies respectively.
“We are going to win the election, the masses are with us, the civil servants are with us, the market women, traders, artisans and the citizens of the state who are fed up with the mis-rule of the PDP are with us”.
Nwachukwu appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies to avoid compromise and treat the aspirants equal in the Saturday’s election.
