* As Party Raps Up Last Minute Deal On Consensus Ahead Of Convention On Saturday
By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-Chief) @CeleOkaf11
Ahead of the Saturday's National convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a coalition of all the Southern Delegates have endorsed the Candidacy of Hon Emma Enukwu as the new Deputy National Chairman South, of the party .
The resolution came after a thorough consultation with the leaders of the party from the South East Zone, which is the zone that got the position zoned to them.
In a statement made by the coordinator of the Southern Delegates Forum of the All Progressives Congress APC (SDF), Prof Adesoji Adeoye, he stated that their decision to endorse Hon Enukwu was after a prolonged assessment of the 2 candidates from Enugu State, Hon. Emma Eneukwu (the incumbent National Vice Chairman South East Zone of APC) and Chief Ken Nnamani (a former Senate President) who are contesting the position.
He posited that, Hon Emma Enukwu has done well for the party and have the support of the majority of the stakeholders from his zone. According to Adesoji, "We have agreed to support, canvass and vote for Hon Emma Enukwu. We made numerous analysis and consultation across their zone and believe you me, the stakeholders believe that he is the Right person for the Job.
"We have started sending signals and networking our members in all the 17 southern States, regarding this decision. We all know that 2023 is around the corner and we need people, who we can trust with our election wining strategies. Hon Eneukwu did well as the National Vice Chairman, South East where he galvanised support for the party in a zone that was formally regarded as a PDP fortress"
The Coalition of Southern Delegates also called on all the party delegates across the nation, who wants the party to progress, to support Hon Eneukwu's Candidacy, as with it, APC wining more elections in South East, will become a done deal.
"We call on all the APC delegates in the 36 states of the Federation and FCT to support Hon Emma Enukwu so that our great party can have a better outing come 2023. Hon Emma Eneukwu has always been a party man, who does not go lower than the Best. With him, we are assured of a better APC leadership in the southern part of the country", the Coalition maintained.
Meanwhile, there have been loud rumbles in the ruling APC, especially in the South East zone, where Eneukwu is National Vice Chairman for the zone, over what a great majority of the party leaders and stalwarts viewed as a clandestine attempts by some "powerful forces" in the party to supplant their choice of Emma Eneukwu as the preferred candidate for the job of Deputy National Chairman South.
NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Newspaper Online gathered on Friday afternoon from reliable top sources in the APC, that the aspiration and purported Presidential endorsement of Emma Eneukwu's main challenger for the position, Senator Ken Nnamani, which was initial circulated in the media last week, has clearly pitched the majority of the APC leaders and stakeholders from the South East zone against some powerful persons in the party who allegedly were foisting the candidacy of the former Senate President against the angry party members.
They South East APC members were insisting, uptill the moment of this report that it is either Emma Eneukwu or no one else. They hinged their crusade for the choice of Eneukwu on the basis that such "influencial party position" already zoned to the South East must be occupied by an "acceptable candidate" is "an outstanding and experienced party administrator and leader for over decades"
According to the APC members, "we want somebody we have tested in the zone and in the entire Southern region right from ANPP. We want somebody the Southern APC can his leadership, his maturity, wisdom and level-headedness. We want somebody we can depend on his words and action. We want somebody who is young and energetic for the job, a known team player, who will be there for us, for our political interest and that of the party. We don't want unnecessary big names that can not give us the representation and the leadership that we need. The man who fits what we want is Hon. Emma Eneukwu. And we will not accept any mago mago!"
Although there were feelers early in the week that the Presidency had distance itself from this alleged move to foist Senator Ken Nnamani as the choice of APC members from the Southern zone for the position of Deputy National Chairman South as against the choice of Hon Emma Eneukwu, said to be the popular candidate for the job. The report said the APC members widely viewed the purported endorsement of a candidate outside Emma Eneukwu as an orchestrated political subterfuge and fraud. NNL
