Two groups under the auspices of the All Progressives Congress Front and All Progressives Youth Forum have given reasons why they submitted petitions to theparty'sNational Working Committee (NWC) against the emergence of Tony Nwoye as Anambra State governorship candidate.

The groups, in separate statements, described the petition as one done in the interest of the party and the state citizenry.

According to the state coordinator of APC Congress Front, Chibueze Akaeze, there was substantial non-compliance to party guidelines, alleging that accreditation tags were stamped with fake stamps and were not signed by the authorised officer.

He said: “We investigated and found that the Borno State Chairman of the APC, who wasn’t a member of the electoral committee, signed such tags with the fake stamp and handed them over to Nwoye’s people who in turn used them to vote.

“Again, the requirements laid down for the identification of delegates such as the provision of a National ID card, international passport , driver's licence, party registration card were maliciously waived aside by the same Borno State Chairman who was obviously in cahoots with Nwoye. This enabled the fake voters to enter the venue of the primary.

“This is in addition to issues where during accreditation agents of other candidates requested for delegate tags in order to verify the accreditation tags and bring the irregularity to the notice of the primary committee but were refused access.

“There is also evidence of Nwoye campaigning at the venue, distributing money by hand and bank transfer to delegates. Those who resisted him were harassed and manhandled.”

On its part, The All Progressives Youth Forum said its petition was largely based on the fact that Nwoye was not an asset to the party, and that his candidature would spell doom for it.

Speaking through its coordinator, Ifeaka Egbunike in Awka, the group said Nwoye’s candidature has a lot of baggage for the APC as he was not only sellable and would lose even in his home town of Nsugbe.

The group said: “Let us look at experience. Tony Nwoye again has little or no experience, even his membership of the House (of Representatives) which is not up to two years makes him unfit and unprepared for the Office of Governor, something our opponents are bound to use against us.

“We wish to draw the attention of the NWC to the existence of a mortgage-like agreement between Nwoye and a PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) moneybag, Chief Arthur Eze. The agreement, which will seek to return Anambra to her dark days of godfatherism, will obviously be rejected by the voters".