Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, representing Anambra South Senatorial District of Anambra State, has described the last Saturday return elections as a clear proof of his strong political support base in the state.
He stated that despite the power of incumbency of the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, and his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), his former party, the Young Progressives Party (YPP), candidates won the two House of Representatives seats that were contested.
“The state government sent down seven Commissioners and other government officials to Nnewi for that election for APGA. Their purpose was to intimidate us, but we floored them to make a statement that by the grace of God, we are in charge of Nnewi and the Anambra South Senatorial District in general,” Ubah said.
He, however, told reporters Sunday night that he stayed back in his Otolo-Nnewi home in Nnewi-North Local Government throughout the period of voting and that he even invited the YPP candidate in the return poll in Nnewi-North, Nnewi-South, Ekwusigo federal constituency, Hon. Peter Uzokwe, to come and stay with him. Yet, he (Uzokwe) floored the APGA candidate, Hon. Uchenna Elodimuo, in the election.
He further said that in a similar manner, the YPP candidate for the Orumba-North/Orumba-South federal constituency, Hon. Chinwe Nnabuife, won the rerun election with a total of 14,496 votes to defeat her Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) opponent, Hon. Okwudili Ezenwankwo, who scored 13,087 votes.
On the other hand, Uzokwe polled a total of 25,518 votes to emerge as the winner, while the APGA candidate, Elodimuo, scored 25,412 votes.
With the outcome of the rerun election, Uzokwe will now replace Elodimuo, who had been in the House of Representatives since after the February 25, 2023, general election until the Appeal Court nullified his election and ordered a rerun election in five polling units in Nnewi-North local government.
Uzokwe and his party, YPP, had filed a petition at the election petition tribunal challenging the outcome of the earlier poll, wherein he complained of irregularities during the main election.
Meanwhile, with the outcome of the rerun election, Hon. Nnabuife has retained her seat in the House of Representatives because the Court of Appeal earlier nullified her victory during the February 25, 2023, general election and ordered a rerun in 16 polling units in the Nanka community of her closest PDP candidate, Okwudili Ezenwankwo.
Ezenwankwo had, after the main election, filed a petition at the election petition tribunal wherein he challenged Hon. Nnabuife’s victory.
Reacting to the outcome of the rerun elections in the two federal constituencies, Ubah stated that the victories had shown that he is a “street general” in Anambra state politics.
“They (Uzokwe and Nnabuife) know that they won those elections because of my influence, so now that I am in APC, I won’t tell you that it is a must that they will come over to the APC, but you know that in politics, you follow your leader,” he stated.
He commended the security agencies for providing adequate security that guaranteed the elections were conducted without violence.
Ubah, who has already crossed over to the federal government-controlled All Progressives Congress (APC) and has announced his intention to contest the coming 2025 state governorship election under the party platform, said that he would replicate his popularity in Anambra South Senatorial District in the other two senatorial districts: Anambra Central Senatorial District and Anambra North Senatorial District if given the opportunity to become Governor of the state.
He stated that his achievements so far in the state, including in human and infrastructure, surpassed that done by any politician or any past administration in the state.
He stated that he had sponsored over 66 youths of the state to the World Cup tournament just to give them exposure.
He said that his sports stadium in the state, worth over N7 billion, is not functional due to bad governance, stating that if the state government had provided the necessary environment, the facilities would have been put to proper use.
He said that he has constructed several roads, empowered thousands of people, especially youths across the state.
He maintained that the state needed someone with vision and passion to develop it
