A former Anambra State Governor Chris Ngige, who is now the Minister of Labour and Productivity, has been described as too principled and patriotic to back down campaign on his campaign for decency and internal democracy in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
In a statement in Awka today, a former member of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Honorable Jennifer Ngozi Obi, said that Dr. Ngige, who is also the APC leader in Anambra State, will not accept the manner Senator Andy Uba became the APC candidate in the November 6 gubernatorial election in the state because of what she called “Uba’s opportunistic picking of Dr Ngige’s first cousin as his running mate”.
There are reports that Uba chose Dr Ngige’s first cousin, Emeka Okafor, a Lagos-based lawyer, as his running mate to placate the minister who has been trenchant in criticizing Uba’s nomination on the basis of the party’s congress of Saturday, June 26.
“There was no congress in any of the 21 local government areas in Anambra State and there was no primary election anywhere which anyone could have won”, the minister stated before newsmen.
The minister is supported by 13 out of the 14 APC gubernatorial aspirants, including Chief George Moghalu, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Inland Waterways, who has instituted a court action against Uba’s nomination.
Honorable Obi said “those who think that they can successfully bribe the minister into silencing by the nomination of his first cousin as Uba’s deputy are mistaken.
“If Senator Ngige had been less principled, he would not have been removed from office as governor in 2006 because there was a huge pressure on him to compromise with the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, where Andy Uba was extremely powerful, and allow the Uba brothers an unhindered access to the state treasury.
“But he refused because he didn’t want to compromise the future of our state, paying a heavy price for his patriotism”.
The former legislator accused Senator Uba of not only orchestrating such crises under Ngige as the abduction of the governor and the destruction of the House of Assembly, Judicial Complex, Governor’s Lodge and Government House as well as the Anambra Broadcasting Service in 2003 by hundreds of hired thugs, but also masterminding the illegal impeachment of Ngige’s successor, Mr Peter Obi, only after six months in office, an action which the Supreme Court reversed shortly after in 2007.
“Ngige cannot afford at this stage in his life”, asserted the erstwhile lawmaker, “to destroy his reputation as highly principled and patriotic by helping in any way to bring back the Ubas in power in Anambra State for a mere mess of pottage”.