From Aloysius Attah and Jeff Amechi Agbodo

The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Sen Andy Uba has flagged off his local government campaign rally in Onitsha commercial city.

Uba stormed the Ezechima primary field venue for Onitsha North rally with pomp even as many people trooped out enmasse to receive him, after which he moved to Fegge housing estate primary school for Onitsha South rally.

At the rally, Hon. Lynda Ikpeazu, representing Onitsha North and South at the Federal House of Representatives who recently defected to APC collapsed her structure for Andy Uba and promised to mobilize more support for his victory.

Uba who was overwhelmed by the turnout at Onitsha while addressing the crowd, promised to return Onitsha ancient city to its enviable state by providing basic infrastructure which has been abandoned for many years, if elected the governor.

He promised to conduct local government election within six months of his administration, if elected, saying he believed in local government autonomy which he championed when he was at the National Assembly.

“There is no other better time to prioritise Onitsha Urban renewal than now. If nothing is done urgently, we will have a city that will be impossible for anyone to move around. The entire roads in Onitsha and other parts of the state have been collapsed.

“As governor, we are going to drive integrated Urban renewal that will end the increasing crime rate in Onitsha. The menace of touts is already threatening businesses in and around Onitsha and our state economy is the worse for it.

“Accordingly, there will also be a new policy regime on revenue collection that won’t be a threat to our people, but instead help to boost the state’s economy.

“Onitsha has been abandoned for years now and we are coming to rescue it from the status of an abandoned city by successive governments. I had the overall development plan of Onitsha in mind when I sponsored some of these bills at the senate such as National Inland Waterways Bill, Consumer Protection Bill, Railway Corporation Bill, National Road Infrastructure Fund Bill and the Nigeria Ports and Harbour Authority Bill.

“I want to commend Hon Ikpeazu for her support and mobilization at the rally. I’m not surprised about her love in Onitsha and beyond because of her good representation. “She is called “madam project” due to the number of road projects and empowerments she has attracted to Onitsha”, he stated.

In her remarks, Ikpeazu who was confident of Uba to win the forthcoming election due to his pedigree and experience, described APC as party to beat in November 6 election.

“We are one family in APC and we should be committed. Election is hard work, we should work together. It is high time we take over Anambra and connect to the centre. Our candidate is experienced and we shall win the election by voting not by rigging.

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“They said APC is Hausa/Fulani party and the result of the election had been written already, it’s not true. We shall all come out en masse to vote for Andy Uba because our votes will count. We shall move to our various wards to canvas for votes and mobilize support for Andy Uba”, Ikpeazu assured.

In his speech, State Party Chairman, Chief Basil Ejidike who is from Onitsha South and mobilized supporters at the rally said the area is 100 percent for Andy Uba.

He said that since Andy Uba emerged at the primary election, good tidings have been following APC in the state as many bigwigs in other political parties have defected to APC.

“With the turnout at the rally, it’s obvious that APC has been generally accepted in Onitsha as a whole and I advised other political parties to stop the campaign of name calling and dwell on issue-based campaign just like our candidate has been doing.

“We have a beautiful bride which is our candidate and that is why many people from other parties are joining the moving train to get to the centre. We shall come out victoriously because we have what it takes to win the November 6 poll and we are counting on you the voters”, Ejidike stated.

Meanwhile, National Coordinator, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Media Warriors Forum, Evang. Chinedu Obigwe has said the governorship candidate of the APC, Senator Andy Uba has been  buying up its members to form structure and shore its image ahead of the polls.

Reacting to the latest defection of  deputy governor of the state, Dr Nkem Okeke, from APGA to the APC, Obigwe said Uba was not politically saleable to the people of the state, hence his resort to “buying APGA members to help him form a structure”

He said, “Ndi Anambra and Nigerians at large know that Andy Uba’s candidature is not acceptable even to the main APC stakeholders led by Senator Chris Ngige and George Moghalu.

“For that reason, he is struggling to make President Buhari believe that his candidature is enjoying wide acceptance by Ndi Anambra by buying over saboteurs to defect to the APC.

“Nkem Okeke and Senator Chris Ngige are from the same Senatorial zone and if Ngige is supporting Andy Uba, he is the person in the right position to take Nkem Okeke to President Muhammadu Buhari to be welcomed into APC by the President.

“The two people that did the introduction of Nkem Okeke to the President played the role of Ngige and such a thing happened because Ngige is not in support of Andy Uba.

“You cannot be taking those you claimed that they joined a ruling party at the federal level to the President without a serving minister that hails from the same state with them and that is incidentally the leader of the party in the state.

“The question on people’s lips is where is Senator Chris Ngige and why is he missing in action in all the defectors’ introduction ceremony to the President? The answer, I will give to the question is that he is missing in action because there is fire on the mountain for Andy Uba” he said.