Anambra LG Poll: APC, NDC, ADC Not in the Race, Says APGA National Chairman Ezeokenwa

National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Barr. Sylvester Ezeokenwa

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Barr. Sylvester Ezeokenwa, has described the decision by major political parties in Anambra State to pull out of the forthcoming Saturday local government election as “playing the ostrich,” .

According to him,the parties never fielded candidates for the election in the first place.

Ezeokenwa’s position came a few hours after the trio of the All Progressives Congress (APC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), and Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) announced that they would pull out of the contest.

According to Ezeokenwa, the only political party other than APGA that is in the race is the Young Democratic Party (YPP), which fielded one chairmanship candidate in Anambra East Local Government Area and no other candidate.

“If you say that you are pulling out of the race, that means that you are in the race. But to say that you are pulling out of the contest when, in the actual sense, you did not field candidates is more of playing the ostrich.
“Go to the headquarters of the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) and find out. You will discover that they never fielded candidates for this Saturday’s election. The only party that has a candidate for the election is the YPP, which has one chairmanship candidate in Anambra East and no councillorship candidates.”he said.

Ezeokenwa contended that, before any election, political parties are expected to conduct primary elections to nominate candidates for the contest.

He maintained that the other political parties did not conduct primary elections and, therefore, were not in the race.

“A good example is our party, APGA, which did not field any presidential candidate in the next general election. We cannot say that we are pulling out because we are not in the race for that election.
“So, people should not see their respective comments about the election to mean that they were initially in the race. You can confirm that from ANSIEC, which is the umpire for this election,” he stated.