TheCable

Chris Ngige, minister of labour and productivity, has faulted the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election conducted in Anambra, on Saturday.

On Sunday, Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun state and chairman of the APC primary election committee, announced that Andy Uba, a former senator, won the primary election.

Abiodun noted that Uba scored 230,201 votes, beating 13 other aspirants to emerge as the APC flagbearer.

Earlier on Saturday, 11 of the 14 governorship aspirants of APC in Anambra had claimed that the June 26 primary in the state did not hold.

Speaking on the development on Monday in an interview with Channels TV, Ngige alleged that the outcome of the primary announced by the Ogun governor was a “total fabrication”.

The minister, who was a former governor of Anambra, said election materials got to LGAs of the state around 6:30pm on Saturday, adding that there was no form of monitoring by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

When confronted that the outcome of the primary was announced by the Ogun governor, he said: “That is a total fabrication. Total fabrication. There was no restriction. I later on drove around.”

Ngige, who had earlier on Saturday called for the postponement of the primary, noted that those who “executed” the exercise are putting the party in “harm’s way”.

“Why did you say I was not happy? Can you be happy if you are disenfranchised in a national election? I did not vote for anybody. I did not come out because there was no material,” he said.

“The materials got to local government areas around 6:30pm; in some places by 7pm. What will amaze you, the result sheets that came there were photocopied, not genuine result sheets. Photocopies! I have some samples.

“I don’t know what was playing out over there but those who contrived and executed it, they failed it. They are putting the party in harm’s way. They are putting our party in harm’s way because they were no monitoring by INEC.”