From: David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
A group, under the aegis of Aggrieved Councilors Association (ACA), Anambra State chapter, is spoiling for a revenge mission against politicians who they accused of frustrating them during the 2014 councilorship election in the state.
The association, with Chief Chuks Benson Anaje as its Director General, on Thursday, in Awka, expressed its preparedness to revenge on its targeted enemies in the forthcoming November 18 governorship election. It took the resolution during an interactive session with the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) governorship candidate, Dr. Stephen Obiora Mbah.
ACA which membership is drawn from 326 wards of 21 local government areas of the state claimed that it was fully in control of the political terrain in Anambra State, saying that it would throw its weight behind a new candidate on an agreement that there would be credible council polls where councilors would be democratically elected to represent their various wards.
The association told Mbah that it would deliver him for the governorship seat based on the fact that he is a new-breed politician that is not yet “polluted”, adding that he had well-articulated programmes and good political ideologies that would take the state to a greater height. The group explained that it saw sincerity in Mbah and would like to support a man who stood by his words as the next Governor of Anambra.
” ACA was formed after January 11, 2014 local government election in the State which was manipulated in the administration of former Governor Peter Obi and the then national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh. They handpicked their friends and relations, installed them in offices as councillors without recourse to the contestants, thereby making us look like fools.
“They denied us of testing our popularity in our various wards, defrauded us of our hard earned money because we paid N50,000 each in order to procure our forms from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and we also spent a lot of money in building our campaigns,” the aggrieved councillors submitted.
The association said the golden moment had come for the members to pay their perceived enemies in their own coin by voting the right person into power.
Responding, Dr Mbah assured the group that he would never fail them as they were failed in the past. He told them that the PRP is the only political party that is not corrupt with a clear-cut manifesto that combined socialism and capitalism for maximum care of Anambra people.
He said that his 10-point agenda revolved around agricultural revolution, health care delivery, security in a new dimension, vocational education and skill acquisition, workers including teachers welfare, jobs creation, among other laudable objectives.
Mbah, who lived in the United States of America for 22 years before he came back to Nigeria to be part of the political process, promised that he would set up an exemplary government in Anambra State that would be the envy of other states in the country.
He said he would pay good attention on infrastructural development and that all road constructions would be done in American model.