By Alphonsus Nweze, Onitsha
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Chief Ifeanyichukwu Osegbo, has alleged that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), deployed the State vigilante group, Udogachi and vote-buying to win the last bye election in the State.
Speaking to newsmen in Atani, Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State during the inauguration of the Atani Ward 1 Executive, Chief Osegbo who is the Deputy Chairman of APC in the State said the leadership of the party in the State has taken notice of the use of Udogachi and vote-buying by APGA to win the two seats in the last election.
APGA won both the Anambra South Senatorial zone and Onitsha North I State Constituency seats contested during the bye-election.
But Chief Osegbo said the reports they got from field confirmed that they have taken note of the use of Udogachi to intimidate their people and even snatched election materials at some of the polling units in Anambra South especially, Osumenyi, the home town of their candidate, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu and Oraifite, their Senatorial candidate, Chief Azuka Okwuosa’s town.
He however noted that the two elections are not the same and stated that they witnessed what happened, including how members of the press were harassed.
“We have taken notice. There were a lot of vote -buying. The Governor amassed a lot of resources for the election.We have had several meetings after that election with those involved in the election at the ward level, the ward chairmen, the agents. They have sent in their reports. We have identified security and vote-buying as parts of the problems” he said.
Osegbo said the party leadership is trying to come up with a plan to stall the repeat of these abnormalities in the gubernatorial election.
” We are equal to the task in the coming governorship election”, he assured because according to him, the gubernatorial election would be a different ball game.
He lauded the presence of APC in Atani generally and Atani Ward ward1 in particular, saying: “I am really impressed by what I saw here”.
Osegbo dismissed the insinuation that APC is not on ground in Anambra State, saying that all of them at the Stste levels have wards in which they came out.
” So we are also members of our respective wards.You must rise from the ward before you get to the State.Like me, I am a State officer butI have my own ward, Umunya Ward1. And in my ward we have full complement of the ward executive, 27 members in number. So APC is active at the grass root in the State”.
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