- * Unveils New Party Platform For Guber Bid In Abuja On Saturday
By Celestine Okafor (Publisher/Editor-in-Chief)
A frontline governorship aspirant in Anambra State for the Saturday, November 6, 2021 election, Chief Ben Etiaba, has finally dumped his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for a yet-to-be known political party.
Etiaba, a top contender in the Anambra guber poll and a former Chairman of Enugu Sports Club, has quit the APC following the ongoing controversy surrounding the party's gubernatorial primary penultimate weekend, on July 26, 2021, in which it was alleged by some of the aspirants in the party that the said primary never actually took place.
But one of his co-aspirant, Senator Andy Uba, from Uga, Aguata local government area, Anambra South, emerged as the APC flagbearer. The tumult and the stiff protests which culminated in court litigations against Uba's candidacy by other contenders compelled the apex leadership of the party to institute a hearing panel. The APC leadership, however, is still battling to come to terms with the internal crisis arising from that contentious governorship primary.
Although, determined to forge ahead with his political ambition, Chief Ben Etiaba, one of the sons of Dame (Chief Mrs) Virgy Etiaba, the former first female governor of Anambra State and a former deputy to ex-governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, announced his decision, on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, to finally quit the APC.
Etiaba is expected to address a news conference in Abuja on Saturday, August 7, 2021, to unfurl the new political platform on which he will be vying for the Saturday, November 6, 2021, governorship election in Anambra state. Etiaba would also at the said press conference which will hold at the National Secretariat of the new party, make known to the public, the identity of his running mate for the election.
After the press briefing exercise, however, Etiaba, according to a statement from him, will immediately kick-start his election campaign on Sunday, August 8, 2021, with a proposed flag-off rally in Awka, the Anambra State capital, in the next fourteen days (from Saturday, August 21, 2021).
Ben Etiaba while announcing his exit from the APC, expressed his gratitude to the party thus: "Having resigned my membership of the All Progressives Congress, I do wish APC well, just as I acknowledge the party for availing me the opportunity to ventilate my political aspiration on their platform". NNL.
