Guber polls: Onitsha South LG targets 50,000 votes for APGA candidates in Anambra

…, urges residents to ensure voter registration 

By Cyprian Ebele, Onitsha 

Onitsha South Local Government Area, Anambra State, is said to have targeted 50,000 votes as the gubernatorial election in the State billed for November 8 this year gathers momentum.

Consequently, the Mayor, Emeka Orji, the Deputy Mayor of the area,  Onyebuchi Obi and the LG Party Chairman, Uche Umeh have charged the constituents to do away with internal bickering and mobilize voters for the election.

Speaking at the stakeholders’ meeting held at the council secretariat hall, the trio stated that it is a call to duty for the party members, especially the principal officers, to make voter registration as important as the election.

According to Obi, “The journey of November 8 started with the voters’ revalidation exercise. We have  earlier recorded 21/21 and 19/21. 

The key principal officers of the ward should use this exercise as the only thing they can offer to APGA for sustainability.

“The Party National Chairman, Sly Ezeokenwa gave us an assignment and we are targeting 50,000 votes for Onitsha South and it is possible. We have 23 male executives in each ward, if every single executive can provide five persons for this exercise, it is 19,000 votes, election is all about mathematics.

“If all of us here can commit to this project, we cannot drag this election with anybody because the governor has done what he should do for us and we don’t have any excuse rather than to write our names as part of the history that made the governor’s second tenure,” he posited.

Fielding questions from participants, Uche Umeh, urged them to ensure that their names, date of birth, among others  were properly spelt out as most of the registrars are not Igbo extraction..

 He also tasked members to ensure that their children and wards who are up to 17 and 28 years are registered.

He reiterated the need for the house to be in order while working towards the November 8 election, and pledged to convene a meeting soon for the new and old members of the party, especially those who felt marginalized or cheated, pointing out that the ward executives should do the same as well to ensure unity among members.

In his speech, Orji who was ably represented by the former Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Council Area, Emeka Asoanya, corroborated the position of.Umeh on the need for oneness among party members towards the coming election.

He maintained that politics is a power game which somebody who understands the game should keep aside internal bickering or personal grudges while fighting for the power game.

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According to him,” Whenever a power game is to be played, you firstly leave bitterness behind and pursue the power , then after the power has been captured, you can go back to your malice, that is how it is being done in the North which makes them retain the power.

“It is only in Igboland that you can see brothers going for a power game with internal bitterness amongst themselves, forgetting that it is the season of power and as a result, all of them will lose out till another four or eight years or even forever” Orji further disclosed.

He further pointed out that it is inappropriate and mismanagement of use of power game that caused the downfall of PDP which was one of the popular and largest parties in the country, resulting in the alliance of the party faction with other parties to form APC

Orji enjoined party members to avoid bickering which is a virus that has eaten deep into the fabric of the party members, and silently and steadily eroded the foundation of the party, recalling that the party lost almost all the House Members in the last House of Assembly election.

He reiterated that internal bickering in APGA has made some of the members to be in APGA and deliver the Labour Party in the last election because they have been delivering PDP and it has become a virus which is affecting APGA both at the National, State, Local Government  and Ward levels.

The Mayor reminded them that the power game has come again, stating that APGA is one state party and urged them to come together regardless of any bitterness to achieve the common goal, pointing out that nobody can trust one who has betrayed his brother.

He also maintained that the beauty of politics is to wait for your power wind, your own time and exercise patience, warning that if one continues to wait for what would enter his pocket, he would completely lose out.

Asoanya, as one of the burial committee members of Late Chief Sylvester Ezeokenwa, reminded the constituents of the need for proper preparation of the burial billed for 12 July at the deceased compound in Umuchu.