By Lawrence Nwimo
The Accord party in Anambra State has declared as false the rumours making rounds that its deputy governorship candidate for November 6 election, Obi Kenneth Ifeatu decamped from the party to rival All Progressive Congress (APC).
The rumour which made waves in several online media handles had it that the deputy governorship candidate made the defection after submitting a resignation letter to the Accord party in the state.
Addressing newsmen at Dr. Godwin Maduka Campaign Office, Enugu-Onitsha expressway, Awka on Friday, the State party Chairman, Prince Bartholomew Igwedibia said there was no submission of any resignation letter and described the reports as mere efforts to distract the party from its plans for the election.
“We denounce whatever speculation or rumours that is going round that Sir Kenneth Ifeatu Obi resigned from our party. Let me make it clear that the deputy guber candidate is still with us. We just spoke at about an hour ago and he has no reason whatsoever to abandon the vision he has with the party.
“We did not receive any resignation letter from anybody and that is to show you that the deputy governorship candidate is still with us,” he said.
The party chief reasoned that Anambra needed virgin candidate in the mould of Maduka to pilot the affairs of the state and noted that since his emergence as Accord candidate had been a huge threat to rival candidates who he said are dwarfed by his qualifications.
Similarly, Accord party flag bearer, Dr. Godwin Maduka said he was unaware of such development and stressed that even the law does not permit such defection in the dying moments of the election.
According to him: ” We did not receive anything concerning any defection besides it is the wrong time to defect. For anybody to defect to another party would be after the November 6 governorship election. I had no knowledge of any defection and I had been with my deputy on my campaign tour round the state.
“We are not playing politics of propaganda but that of pragmatism. People should understand the electoral law. I have a candidate with which I cleared the INEC guidelines. This is not the time to switch or add but only in the time of death which we don’t pray for. Accord party have their candidature and that is still intact,” he said.
Maduka, the founder of Las Vegas Pain Institute and Medical Center, USA, reassured that his administration would usher the best governance the people of the state had ever seen and would arrest the various lapses of the current government especially in the area of insecurity and infrastructural development.
He reiterated that his ten points agenda would not only be youth and women inclusive but transform the state to a medial tourist centre, industrial hub and a state for mechanized agriculture. He also vowed to erect 21 satellite campuses in the 21 council areas if elected to govern the State.
Earlier, the Director General, Godwin Maduka campaign organization, Barr. Bright Nlebedum posited that the speculation was a distraction aimed at truncating the peace and unity of the party.
He reassured party faithfuls that the candidacy of Maduka and his deputy remained intact, as the party continued to do everything within its power to ensure that the it emerge victorious in the forthcoming election.