The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State has denied claims that it has chosen Austin Umahi, brother of outgoing governor David Umahi, to fill his Senate seat.
After Senator Umahi was named Minister of Works, his position for Ebonyi South was vacated.
On Monday in Abakaliki, the state chairman of the party, Stanley Okoro-Emegha, briefed newsmen and rebutted the claim, calling it “false.”
Okoro-Emegha stated that neither Austin nor anyone else has been nominated to fill the void, and that a new primary election will be held by the party.
We own this seat, so the APC will run a candidate who will help us keep it.
Because “we are on ground in the state,” he stated, “we will not allow any seat occupied by the party to go to the opposition.”
The APC, according to the party’s leader, will hold a legitimate primary to select a candidate who can win over the party and the voters.
This is an elected position, and the person filling it should be chosen through open elections, not by acclamation.
While the governor, as party head, is entitled to back anybody he or she chooses, he or she does not automatically gain control of the party’s nomination.
He said the party was holding off on calling for an election until the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deemed the seat vacant and issued rules for how to hold the poll.
It was accomplished with a landslide vote, so those who think we’ll lose the state’s gubernatorial seat at the tribunal are dreaming.
He argued that the people who elected the governor were aware of his abilities and that the governor had begun to demonstrate those qualities through his initiatives.
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