2023: FCT Labour Party adopts APGA Senatorial Candidate, dumps Kingibe

By CYRIL MBAH, Abuja.

History was made in Abuja on Monday when residents of the territory from the middle belt and southern parts of the country, unanimously adopted the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) senatorial contestant, Dr. Anthony Chike Ezekwugo as their preferred candidate for the senatorial seat in the Federal Capital Territory.

The adoption surprised many observers who regarded the move as unusual because LP members joined other politicians in the group to effectively sideline the Labour Party senatorial candidate, Mrs. Ireti Kingibe, who has contested the lone Senate seat four times now.

The unexpected move placed the LP contestant in a very difficult position considering the percentage of votes from southern and middle belt residents of the FCT that may now tilt the balance in favour of APGA.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, where the APGA candidate was presented to the public, the Chairman of the Middle Belt/Southern Concourse, Com. Olisa Uzoewulu (Wulus) stated that the decision to adopt Dr. Anthony as Middle Belt/Southern candidate for the FCT Senatorial election was made in the interest of equity, moral, ethical and social considerations.

“For the critical position of Senator of the FCT, we have declared our unalloyed and total support and adoption of the candidate of APGA, Dr. Anthony Chike Ezekwugo and our God driven preparedness to work, campaign and canvass for him.

“We so present him to the good people of the FCT and our decision which derives essentially from moral, ethical and social considerations are in tandem with our desire to restore the ethical base of FCT politics. In a nutshell, our decision was based on competence, exposure proven track record and the social contract agreement of fair representation predicated on the ideals of the creation of the Federal Capital Territory,” Wulus said.

The chairman, who was flanked by officials of the Concourse, LP and APGA members, stated also that the group has adopted Chinedu Obika for the Abuja North House of Representatives seat and Mrs. Joy Ohiomora as the candidate for the Abuja Southern Federal Constituency seat respectively.

The chairman however called on FCT voters to vote for the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi during the presidential election but to reserve their votes for the adopted candidates for the Senate and House of Representative elections each.

He stated that seating FCT National Assembly members who are also in the race for re-election have not done anything for the territory despite being there for several years and declared that voters should now make the decision to correct the wrong choice of the past years.