Abia Central 2027: Onuigbo, APC Aspirant Challenges ’Vote Allocations’ in Primary Election

–         Says heist bad for APC image in Abia State, South East zone.

Rep Sam Onuigbo, a candidate for the Abia Central Senatorial ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has challenged defenders of the alleged fabricated results from the party’s May 18 senatorial primary to explain their roles in the controversial vote allocations.

Onuigbo, a former two-term member of the House of Representatives and notable sponsor of Nigeria’s groundbreaking Climate Change Act, firmly insists the figures announced from the exercise were not only questionable but had further damaged the image of the APC in Abia State and the South East zone.

Reacting to media attacks against him over his protest against the conduct of the Abia Central APC senatorial primary, Onuigbo told THISDAY that sponsors of the negative reports were merely trying to divert attention from an outrageous hijack of the primary election process.

He further told THISDAY that the jokers behind the attacks should have aided the APC National Working Committee, NWC, to clarify how figures of 36,935 votes, 11,457 votes and 5,833 votes were allegedly allocated to three aspirants in a contest he declared was never properly conducted across many wards.

According to Onuigbo, it was clearly not impossible for such numbers to emerge in a senatorial district with about 59,000 APC members, especially when no election reportedly took place in several wards across the six local government areas that make up Abia Central.

“Let them help the national leadership of our great party make sense of this puzzle,” Onuigbo said, querying how one aspirant could be gifted 36,935 votes when the process was not conducted in most areas.

The former lawmaker also challenged the authors of the disputed results to explain where they obtained the certificate of return allegedly issued to the declared winner, after the national leadership of the APC reportedly denied printing any certificate of return apart from that of President Bola Tinubu.

Onuigbo said the controversy had already caused serious damage to the party, citing the petition by Senator Nkechi Nwaogu, a ranking member of the Sixth and Seventh Senate, who complained that no official came to her Osisioma Ngwa Ward 2 or anywhere in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area to conduct the primary.

He regretted that Nwaogu had since left the APC over what he described as the vexatious denial of participation in a simple senatorial primary.

Onuigbo accused some desperate politicians in the Abia APC of importing what he called the PDP’s “virus of impunity” into the ruling party, saying it was the same culture of disregard for transparent process that made him leave the PDP for the APC during his second term in the House.

He urged the APC national leadership to thoroughly investigate the Abia Central primary, identify those behind the alleged fabricated figures and rescue the party from further embarrassment.

According to him, the issue is no longer about personal ambition but about protecting the reputation, internal democracy and future of the APC in Abia Central.