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Barr George Ogara
Barr. George Ogara

No amendment was made to the list of governorship and deputy governorship candidates of the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress or any other party in the state, in the final amended list of candidates for the 2023 general election published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Monday evening.

It is recalled that whereas the name and particulars of the secretary of the APC in Enugu State, Chief Robert Ngwu, have been on INEC’s website, the party is parading Barr. Robert Ogara as the deputy governorship candidate.

Robert Ngwu is number 278 as deputy governorship candidate in INEC’s list of candidates for the 2023 governorship election.

A professor of Law and former Attorney-General of Imo State, Sir Francis Dike (SAN), described development as “a pure fraud that can only happen in a disorderly and rotten society such as ours”

The Chairman of the party in Enugu State, Chief Ugochukwu Agballah, had while appearing on a national television programme early in January denied that it was a deliberate action to deceive the electorate, insisting it was an error, which the Court had ordered INEC to correct.

However, in a publication on INEC’s entitled “Amended List of Final List of Candidates, Pursuant to Court Orders, Death, Correction of Errors Made by Political Parties” and dated January 30 2023, no amendments were made to the list of governorship candidates or their running mates in Enugu State.

In a document signed by the Commission Secretary, Mrs. Rose Omooa Ririan-Anthony, amendments were only made to the governorship/deputy governorship candidates in Abia, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kano, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, and Zamfara State.

“By virtue of the provisions of Section 287 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), the Commission is bound to enforce the Orders of Court on the Nomination of candidates by Political Parties in the affected constituencies.

“Whereas the Commission published the details of Candidates as submitted by political parties on the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal (ICNP), some political parties forwarded complaints seeking correction of error in the details of their candidates.

“Consequent upon the above, the lists of the candidates in respect of the attached Senatorial Districts and Federal Constituencies, Governorship and State House of Assembly elections are amended and published as Amendment No. 3 pursuant to the Orders of the Court, served on the Commission as at 30th January 2023 and request for correction of candidates details by political parties”, the Commission stated.

Meanwhile, the Concerned Enugu APC Members led by the pioneer deputy chairman of the party in Enugu, Comrade Adolphus Ude, has accused Agballah and Uche of an attempt to hoodwink the people of Enugu North Senatorial District electorate into believing that their brother is on the ticket.

“It was a deliberate act, not an error as claimed. George Ogara whose pictures adorn APC’s posters and billboards as the deputy governorship candidate is from Enugu North. But Robert Ngwu, who is an indigene of Nike, hails from the same Enugu East Senatorial District as Ugochukwu Agballah’s governorship candidate, Chief Uche Nnaji. They know it is not a balanced ticket, hence they are fraudulently parading George Ogara as the running mate to deceive Enugu people, especially the people of Nsukka zone”, he explained.

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