The National Deputy Chairman (South) of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Annie Okonkwo, has blamed APC governorship candidate in last November 16 governorship election in Anambra State, Senator Chris Ngige, for the poor performance of his party in the gubernatorial election.

He said Ngige mismanaged the party’s campaign fund for the election. Speaking to journalists in Lagos State, the APC national deputy chairman, who blamed Senator Ngige for the crisis in Anambra APC, disclosed that Ngige, during the Anambra gubernatorial election, collected money from the party faithful without putting it into the campaign, therefore causing APC’s failure in the election.

His words: “It is very unfortunate that we all prepared for this election and, of course, the APC was the party to beat prior to the APC primary election because we had over 280,000 registered APC members. So, only APC members’ votes can bring the candidate of the party close to winning the election.

“It was certain that APC was fully accepted in Anambra State and because we wanted the party to be united in the battle for the governorship election, I stepped down for Ngige so that there will not be any rancour. I did that to ensure that all the party members are united so that we could go on with the election. But it was unfortunate that after I stepped down for Ngige whom I thought could be able to carry all APC members along, he changed completely and decided to sideline everybody.”

Senator Okonkwo while commenting on the crisis in Anambra APC said that “the governorship candidate of the party in the last governorship election still sees APC as ACN.” Reacting to the issue raised against Ngige, the Director of Media and Publicity of Ngige Campaign Organisation, Chief Charles Amilo, said that the performance of APC during the Anambra governorship election had nothing to do with campaign funds.

He said the election was marred by sheer irregularities. He said Okonkwo did not participate in the election and never contributed a dime to the campaign, so, there is no way he can talk about funds and campaign.

“It is a wrong impression that Senator Ngige mismanaged campaign fund and that he lost because of fund. If you look at what happened during the Anambra governorship election critically, you will notice that APC’s performance in the election had nothing to do with the campaign fund.”

•Credit (except amended headline) Saturday Mirror. Photo shows Senator Annie Okonkwo.

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