Chuks Onuoha, (Umuahia); Paul Orude (Bauchi); George Onyejiuwa (Owerri); Femi Folaranmi (Yenagoa);
Mohammed Munirat Nasir (Gusau)

The local government congress of the All Progressives Congress, APC, held in Umuahia, the Abia State capital was very peaceful in some of the venues visited by yesterday.

However, the two factions of the state chapter of the party held exercise at tow different places in different local governments. The congresses held by the two factions led Chief Emmanuel Ndukwe and Chief Donatus Nwankpa, were peaceful all through. Participants at the venues visited were orderly even as aspirants who lost in the election gave their blessings to the winners that emerged.

At Umuawa Alaocha Primary School, where Dr Emmanuel Ndukwe’s faction held the Umuahia North Local Government Area congress, the exercise started by 11.45 am.

The LGA party chairman, who spoke with Sunday Sun said that those who vied for the various positions were very peaceful as winners emerged to the applause of other contestants. Earlier in an interview, a youth leader, Ikenna Emmanuel Anyalewechi, told Sunday Sun: “Over 2737 members attended. But when we were doing our accreditation, we discovered that some people were not members of APC and so they were shown the way out peacefully while some did not come with their PVC’S. So total number that was accredited were 2,056 who were eligible voters and everything went on smoothly. We closed voting by noon and counting of the voting started by 1.05pm and ended about 30 minutes later and people were truly happy. The positions that were vied for include that of the chairman, vice chairman, etc, and at the end of the day, 26-man exco emerged, which include the chairman, deputy, secretary, youth leader, woman leader etc. The positions were highly contested and winners emerged.”

The story was not different in Umuahia South, which held its congress at Amibo primary school. The LGA party chairman of Umuahia North, Dr Nelson Udenze, who spoke to Sunday Sun expressed joy at the peaceful conduct of the congress. He said that the party did not run into any hitch during the exercise and called on Abia people to vote for APC, noting that only the party could take them out their present troubles.