Comrade Tony Nwoye,
the former student activist emerged as the candidate of the PDP for the
forthcoming gubernatorial elections at the primaries conducted last
weekend.
Following his nomination, he spoke to Vanguard in a brief interview. Excerpts:
Can we know the significance of your victory at the polls?
My victory confirms that power belongs to God. We campaigned across the
wards in the 21 local government areas and left the rest to God. And
that confirms to us that President Jonathan and the national leadership
led by Bamanga Tukur are committed to internal democracy in the party.
It confirms that the president did not interfere with the PDP primaries
in Anambra. PDP members in Anambra State felt that this man who is a
former state chairman should be given a chance. My people at the
grassroots helped me to convince and mobilise people for my victory.
Given
that two parallel primaries where held and another factional candidate
Senator Andy Uba emerged, on the strength of this don’t you think it has
implications for your candidacy?
There were no parallel
primaries. The Supreme Court in one of its judgments said something in
that direction. You talk of parallel when two things are equal. You
can’t describe a fraudulent exercise as primaries. The Supreme Court has
said that if a state conducted its primaries, it amounts to a fraud. It
affirmed that only the national working committee has the power to
conduct primaries.
We had notable party chieftains who attended
the primaries that produced me. We had Governor Shema, Senator Ndoma
Egba among others, who were in attendance. All these men of proven
integrity gathered together at the police headquarters and x-rayed the
whole situation before going to the field. How can someone now claim to
have emerged as candidate through a fraudulent process? Who were the
delegates that elected him?
The PDP national working committee is
equal to the task. We are also equal to the task here in Anambra. How
did they elect their delegates? They bought forms from the national
secretariat, appeared before the screening panel and when the panel now
went to work at the Ekwueme Square they preferred to go to a different
place where nobody will oppose them and claimed to have had primaries.
What
do you make of claims in some quarters that your emergence was
programmed to pave way for Senator Uba given that you emerged ahead of
other leading contenders?
How could that be possible?
Under what basis? How can someone with my background be programmed to
win? The people saying that are APC and APGA because their conclusion
was that Uba or Ukachkwu would hijack the PDP ticket. They know that
once someone of our caliber and from our background becomes the
candidate, it would not be an easy ride for them.
Their fear is
because of the voting pattern especially in Anambra North. We have seven
local governments in Anambra North in addition to Awka north. All we
need to do is to stop APC from rigging in Idemili and stop the governor
from rigging in Anaocha. That ends the election. The same forces who are
causing confusion were the ones that conspired to stop me from going to
the House of Representatives after my victory.
If INEC decides to stand its grounds on the recognition of the Uba faction, what will you do?
They
can not do that. They can not. They wrote a letter that they recognized
Oguebego but that is different from having primaries. Let us assume
that they recognised Oguebego.. But Oguebego is not the one to conduct
primaries. The National Headquarters recgnised Ken Emeakayi as the state
chairman. INEC can not try it. Prof Jega dares not to try it.
What do we expect from you in the days ahead?
We expect total reconciliation. We are already reaching out to our
brothers who contested but failed. Only one person can be governor. So
we shall all witness the healing process.
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