Awka, Nigeria — A governorship aspirant under the Labour Party (LP) in Anambra State, Mr. John Chuma Nwosu, has distanced himself from the party’s primary election held on Saturday, April 5, where Dr. George Moghalu emerged as the party’s flagbearer for the November gubernatorial election.
Nwosu, through a statement issued by the Director General of his campaign organization, Mr. Ben Chuks Nwosu, dismissed reports suggesting that he participated in the primary, describing them as “mischievous and misleading.”
According to the statement, Nwosu had officially withdrawn from the race prior to the election due to alleged irregularities in the compilation of the delegates’ list, which he claimed compromised the credibility of the process.
“The attention of the John Nwosu Campaign Organization has been drawn to the purported allocation of votes to our principal, Mr. John Chuma Nwosu, during the April 5 Labour Party primary election, despite his non-participation either in person or by proxy,” the statement read.
“It is patently mischievous for the organizers of the so-called primary to allocate votes to Mr. Nwosu, who had earlier withdrawn from the process owing to verifiable manipulations of the delegates’ list.”
The campaign organization further referenced the recent Supreme Court judgment that sacked the party’s National Chairman, Barr. Julius Abure, as a factor in Nwosu’s decision to step down, questioning the legitimacy of the primary conducted under his leadership.
Nwosu confirmed that he had formally communicated his withdrawal from the contest to both the sacked chairman, Julius Abure, the party’s caretaker chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman, as well as the primary election committee. He emphasized that his inclusion on the ballot and the subsequent allocation of votes were done without his consent.
“We urge members of the Labour Party in Anambra State, across Nigeria, and the general public to disregard any claim that Mr. John Chuma Nwosu participated in or received votes from the said primary election,” the statement added. “This was a deliberate attempt to lend credibility to an exercise that lacked transparency from inception to execution.”
Despite Nwosu’s withdrawal, he reportedly polled 19 votes during the exercise, while Moghalu secured 575 votes in a contest monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the party’s electoral committee, and independent observers.
The primary, which took place at Finotel Hotel in Awka, was described as peaceful, with delegates conducting themselves in an orderly manner throughout the accreditation, voting, and collation processes.
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In his acceptance speech, Dr. Moghalu promised not to betray the trust reposed in him by the party and its supporters, describing his victory as a turning point for the state.
“This is a defining moment for Anambra,” he said. “It’s time to build a prosperous and inclusive state.”
Dr. George Moghalu is expected to face the incumbent governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, who emerged unopposed as the consensus candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) during its primary election, held on Saturday in Awka. Soludo secured over 300 affirmative votes. Meanwhile, in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu was declared the winner of the party’s primary, which was briefly suspended following a disruption by suspected thugs amid internal disagreements among party members..
