Chief Kingsley Uju Chima, a House of Representatives Candidate on the platform of Action Alliance (AA), says candidates of the party and President Muhammadu Buhari will sweep the polls in Imo in 2019.
Chima, a former Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations to the Imo State Government and 2019 All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirant for Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta and Oru West Federal Constituency, said that the people of Imo will vote for personalities and not party.
He made the declaration at an interactive session with Newsmen in Lagos on Sunday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Speaker of the Imo House of Assembly, Acho Ihim had on Dec. 7 led 18 out of the 25 Lawmakers in the house to defect from their former parties to the AA.
This followed the picking of the AA governorship ticket in Imo by Mr Uche Nwosu, the Son in Law to Gov Rochas Okorocha and APC governorship aspirant in the state.
Chima explained that those who joined AA were aspirants from the APC and PDP who needed a platform to realise their mandates.
“The 2019 general elections will be determined by the people. They know the pedigree of these candidates who have related closely with them and will not abandon them, having been the ones who supported that they seek an alternative platform to run.
“We are convinced that none of us will lose to any other party or candidate in clean, fair and free elections,” he said.
He said that AA candidates were not only canvassing for votes for themselves but we’re also urging their supporters to support the re-elecrion of the president Bihari.
“This is why you will see the Nwosu campaign banner with the picture of Buhari. We support the president’s re-election and I know we will win all other parties candidates in Imo, ”the candidate said.
He noted that those who grew APC in Imo in spite of the odds faced by its founders in the state to make the party acceptable to the people were the ones that are in AA.
“We are the APC structure in Imo. Unfortunately, those who masterminded and orchestrated the refusal of tickets to deserving members failed to realise that without the crowd there is no party.
“It is not name that makes a party strong but the members and their supporters. These are the people that will ensure our victory in 2019,” he further said.
The house of representatives candidate added that if the party had not issued automatic tickets for sitting Lawmakers and had allowed the members to freely decide their candidates, the outcome would have been accepted and all aspirants would have worked for whoever emerged.
“As it is we are working to win in AA but without jettisoning our support for the President,” chima said.
He alleged that some of the new entrants in the APC were moles who joined to destroy it.
“We will not allow then destroy Imo and its people,” he added.
Chima,however, urged INEC to ensure that the 2019 elections were credible to make it acceptable to participants and Nigeria as a whole. (NAN)