From Our Lagos Correspondent

Stanley Okoro-Emegha, the party’s state chairman, refuted the story on Monday in Abakaliki while briefing newsmen, calling it “false.” According to Okoro-Emegha, the party will hold a new primary to choose a candidate, thus neither Austin nor any other person have been nominated to fill the position.

APC will field a candidate that will retain the seat because it belongs to us. “We will not allow any seat occupied by the party to go to the opposition because we are on ground in the state,” he said. The party’s chairman said that the APC will conduct a credible primary to elect a candidate who will be acceptable to it and the people. “The seat is an elective one, so its occupant should emerge through a transparent process and not through nomination. The governor, as the leader of the party, has the right to support any aspirant, but that does not mean that the ticket belongs to anybody,” he said.

He stated that the party was awaiting the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of the position as vacant and the release of rules for the election’s conduct. “Individuals who also say we would lose the state’s gubernatorial seat at the tribunal are dreaming because it was achieved through an overwhelming mandate. The governor has, through his policies, started justifying the confidence reposed in him by the people, as they knew his capabilities before electing him,” he said.