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Similarly, the Action People’s Party’s governorship candidate, retired Major General Ijioma Nwokoro Ijioma, expressed confidence of victory and promised to outperform the Otti administration, pledging to prioritise workers’ welfare and tackle insecurity head on. Meanwhile, an aide to the Labour Party’s candidate for Bende Federal Constituency, Chief Chima Anyaso, Stanley Okorie, warned those banking on rigging to have a rethink, insisting that voters who demand their votes be counted cannot be frightened into silence, and that the lesson of the recent Osun experience is that the electorate cannot be permanently bullied, bought or manipulated, since the ballot remains the most powerful weapon available to the ordinary citizen in a democracy.
Enugu: APC highlights achievements while ADC and NDC build grassroots networks
In Enugu State, the APC, ADC and NDC have each declared their readiness for the contest, outlining distinct strategies for winning the governorship race. While the APC is banking heavily on the performance of Governor Peter Mbah and his administration’s projects, the ADC is relying on grassroots structures and the zoning of its governorship ticket to the Enugu North senatorial zone, and the NDC says it is building a strong grassroots structure around an issue based campaign.
The APC’s state publicity secretary, Chief Uche Obute, said the party was prepared to move round the state to showcase what he described as the achievements of the Mbah administration, pointing to projects across the state’s 260 wards, including smart schools and primary health centres, as well as landmark developments such as the International Conference Centre and Enugu Air, which he said had transformed the state’s profile from a civil service economy into a business and industrial hub. Obute was emphatic that the APC had no serious opposition to contend with in Enugu, insisting that rival campaigns amounted to little more than politicians introducing themselves, since there was, in his words, no vacancy at the Lion Building. He predicted that the party would sweep the local government elections by the following month and go on to win every contest in the state in 2027, arguing that the achievements of the Mbah administration made it difficult for opposition candidates to offer voters anything comparable.
On the recent Osun State election and the growing role of the IReV result viewing system, Obute said the APC had no issue with the outcome, stressing that the priority in a democracy is that the votes of the people should count, and that coming second in Osun did not mean the party lacked political strength in that state.
The ADC, in contrast, is approaching the 2027 contest from a different angle. Its legacy chairman in Enugu State said the party had built structures from the polling unit level up to the state level, describing the party as more ready than it had ever been, though he stopped short of predicting outright victory, saying only that the ADC was certain of winning some seats in the state. He identified the party’s support base, the calibre of its candidates and the zoning of the governorship ticket to Enugu North as central pillars of its strategy, arguing that the zone had been politically marginalised and should not have to wait a further sixteen years before contesting the seat again. He described the party’s candidate, Pastor Ozoemena Ojiofor, as a man of integrity with strong grassroots appeal, particularly given the sizeable population of the Nsukka zone, and said the ADC intended to campaign on its manifesto and what it plans to offer the people rather than on personality attacks, appealing to other parties to do the same. On the lessons of the Osun poll, he said the experience underscored the importance of properly transmitting and protecting results, and that the party was training its agents accordingly and would continue to monitor electoral materials to guard against tampering.
The NDC, for its part, is also projecting a strong grassroots structure as the foundation of its 2027 campaign. The party’s Enugu State chairman, Johnpaul Ani, said the NDC’s preparation went well beyond the mobilisation that typically begins only months before an election, explaining that the party had been building structures across the state’s 17 local government areas, wards and polling units capable of surviving the entire electoral process, from voter mobilisation through to polling, result transmission, collation and, where necessary, legal action. Ani said he believed the NDC could win Enugu State, but insisted that confidence was rooted in political realities on the ground rather than bravado, pointing to an electorate he described as increasingly sophisticated and focused on competence, accountability, economic opportunity, security, education, healthcare and the quality of governance.
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He said the party was engaging young people, professionals, workers, traders, farmers, women, students and communities across the state, and that its campaign would be fundamentally issue based, built around ideas, competence and integrity rather than inducement or personality politics. On the Osun election, Ani said it offered Nigeria several important lessons, noting that the IReV system had made it possible for citizens, journalists, observers and parties to scrutinise results from polling units, even as he cautioned that technology alone cannot guarantee a perfect election and that a party cannot afford to be strong at the campaign level while weak at the polling unit level.
Imo: Opposition parties activate structures after campaign ban lifted
In Imo State, three opposition parties have signalled their readiness to hit the ground running ahead of the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections, even as they say full scale campaign activities are yet to formally commence. In separate statements, officials of the ADC, the All Peoples Party (APP) and the NDC said their structures were being activated following INEC’s lifting of the campaign ban.
The ADC’s publicity secretary, Comrade Ayozie Uchechukwu Ronald, clarified that while INEC has officially lifted the ban on campaign activities, the party’s full campaign proper has not yet begun, even though its internal machinery is already operating at full tilt, with a statewide mobilisation already under way. He disclosed that the party kicked off a comprehensive statewide local government tour across all 27 local government areas of Imo State on 19 August 2026, aimed at sensitising, engaging and mobilising grassroots members and key stakeholders ahead of the campaign season, and said the ADC leadership would soon hold a strategic meeting with all candidates, after which its official campaign council would be unveiled. The APP also declared its readiness, with the party’s spokesperson, Steve Nnadi, saying it was more than prepared to market its candidates and win the elections.
Dr Chima Matthew Amadi, the party’s leader in the state and its senatorial candidate for Imo East, said the APP would resist intimidation and defend every vote during the general election, describing the party’s campaign as one built on ideas rather than empty slogans or vote buying, and drawing on conversations with traders, farmers and artisans across Owerri, Ngor Okpala and Mbaise to shape what he called the party’s manifesto and covenant with the people. He warned that his commitment to a peaceful, issue based campaign should never be mistaken for weakness, cautioning against any attempt to intimidate APP supporters, harass its agents or disrupt its rallies, and vowing that the party would deploy every lawful means available to protect its members and the democratic rights of the electorate.
The NDC, meanwhile, is targeting massive grassroots mobilisation ahead of 2027. The party’s state chairman, Professor James Okoroma, pointed to the recent Osun governorship election as proof that ultimate power lies with the people, insisting that retrogressive forces cannot subvert the democratic will of a determined electorate, and said the NDC was moving into the field for a major mobilisation drive towards 2027, vowing to confront anyone who thinks they can manipulate election results.
The pattern emerging across Ebonyi, Abia, Enugu and Imo suggests a 2027 contest that will be fought as much on the ground, through grassroots structures, zoning arrangements and community mobilisation, as it will be on the airwaves, even as the wave of political violence recorded in Ebonyi in particular casts a troubling shadow over the opening weeks of campaigning in the South East.
