David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Senator Andy Uba Friday night failed to join other candidates to defend their manifestos ahead of the November 6 governorship election.
A socio-political group, Kwechiri Unity Forum in conjunction with Rise TV had held the debate for all the 18 governorship candidates in the state, for the November 6 election, to present their programmes to the people.
The debate, titled: “2021 Anambra Governorship Election: Face the Voters”, was attended by only five candidates.
Those in attendance were candidates of; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Mr Valentine Ozigbo, Accord Party; Dr. Godwin Maduka, Action Alliance (AA); Chief Ben Etiaba, African Democratic Congress (ADC); Dr. Akachukwu Nwankpo and Allied Peoples Movement (APM); Col. Geoffrey Onyejegbu.
Other candidates who shunned the debate included Dr. Obiora Okonkwo of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Dr. Obiora Agbasimalo of Labour Party, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of Young Progressive Party (YPP), among others.
ARISE NEWS Channel presenter and former Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, who anchored the programme alongside two panelists grilled the candidates on their manifestos.
The governorship candidates in attendance took the opportunity to speak on their intended programmes, which dwelt on leadership, economy, agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, security, among others.
The co-convener of Kwechiri Unity Forum, Mr. Emmanuel Obieze, who spoke to THISDAY said invitations were sent to all the candidates, and the group ensured that they personally received and acknowledged their invitations.
“I don’t know why they did not attend. We invited all the candidates. The idea was to give them the opportunity to defend their manifestos before Anambra people.
“I would not like to say they are afraid of facing Anambra people to explain their manifestos, or to say that they do not have any, because they did not state the reason for their being absent,” Obieze said.
Addressing his supporters at the campaign flag-off yesterday, Soludo said he was confident of winning the November 6 governorship election, adding that candidates of other political parties in the race were not his match.
Soludo said he was confident that there are some political parties in the race who Anambra people will never vote for, even if they held the people of the state at gunpoint.
Soludo said: “I thank APGA for the ticket it gave me on June 23, and the over 50 support groups who for years continued to clamour for me to aspire for the governorship position.
“They have been demanding for me to come and run, some of them are people across party lines, and some who are not even politicians have been calling me and saying that after the tenure of Governor Willie Obiano, the best thing that can happen to Anambra is for me to come and continue. Anambra people want APGA to continue.
“We will compete and contest for every vote and we will not take your votes for granted. Our target is to reach the one million-vote mark. There are people who know that even if they carry a gun, Anambra people will not vote for them. They are carrying money around and buying expired politicians.
“Anambra is APGA, and APGA in Anambra. Anambra is not Imo. They say they want to connect us to the centre, and it is idiocy for them to talk about going to the centre because I’m already in the centre.
“I serve in this government (federal), so when they talk about going to the centre, they are talking about coming to meet us. I’m already at the centre and I go in and out of Aso Rock, so when they talk about going to the centre, they are coming to meet me, because I’m there already.”
