‘This Is Unacceptable, I Spent Over ₦100 Million’ – APC Aspirant Rejects Result

An aspirant for the Ahiazu-Mbaise constituency seat in the Imo State House of Assembly, Ezechukwu Obinna, has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of extorting aspirants through the sale of nomination and expression of interest forms.

Naija News reports that Obinna also rejected what he described as the imposition of a candidate for the constituency.

In a viral video circulated on Wednesday, the aspirant expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the APC primary process in Imo State.

Obinna said six aspirants purchased forms to contest for the Ahiazu-Mbaise state constituency seat.

According to him, each aspirant spent over ₦10 million processing the forms after the party allegedly assured them that an open primary would be conducted.

“We were six aspirants who purchased forms from Ahiazu-Mbaise, and we spent over ₦10 million naira each in processing the forms. The party gave us hope that there would be an open primary,” he said.

The aspirant alleged that while they were preparing for the primary, they heard that another candidate had been selected without consultation or voting.

He claimed the person selected had earlier contested and lost a House of Representatives primary.

“While we were preparing ourselves for the exercise, we heard that a woman who failed the House of Representatives primary had been selected as the candidate for the Ahiazu-Mbaise state assembly seat,” he said.

Obinna denied that the aspirants agreed to any consensus arrangement.

He said there was no meeting with Governor Hope Uzodimma or the state party chairman before the alleged decision was taken.

“There was nothing like consensus agreement. No meeting with the governor, nor state party chairman. All we heard was that the winner has emerged,” he added.

‘I Spent Over ₦100 Million’

The aspirant said he would have accepted the outcome if one of the six aspirants who bought forms had emerged through a transparent process.

“My anger is that if the party had chosen one person from among the six of us who purchased forms, but they went as far as selecting a woman who was contesting for the federal House of Representatives and had failed in the just concluded primary,” he said.

He added that he had spent over ₦100m on his campaign and on the APC.

Obinna added, “I’m calling on the party and the governor of Imo state, who is the head of the party, to do the right thing and provide an opportunity for all the aspirants to test their popularity in the field.

“Anything short of this is unacceptable to me. I cannot spend over a hundred million naira just to be discarded in this manner because I’m in the APC. This is ridiculous. This is unacceptable to me!”