From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
A group, Abia North Political Projects Advocacy Group (ANPPAG), has picked Bishop Sunday Onuoha of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC), as consensus candidate for Abia North for the 2023 governorship election in the state.
Disclosing this at a press briefing in Umuahia, yesterday, Director General of the group, Dr. Uduma Nnante, said ANPPAG arrived at the choice of Onuoha after it painstakingly screened six of the governorship candidates from Abia North.
He said after the primaries, they discovered that 10 out of the 18 political parties gave their governorship tickets to Abia North sons and daughters.
He said there was no way Abia North as a people, would go to the polls with such number of candidates at the same time and win, hence the need to prune the numbers to one.
He said the group had set up a committee drawn from the five local government areas that made up Abia North to screen the candidates.
He said the committee used some key considerations in arriving at its conclusion, among them capacity, credibility, sound health, political party and good governance.
“It is important to note that all our governorship candidates in all the parties are qualified and met our selection criteria, but we must present only one person. Bishop Onuoha was chosen based on his capacity, integrity, sound health, rich manifesto and knowledge of good governance. Bishop Onuoha is a peace-builder, a quintessential community mobiliser, and an astute programme strategist who has in partnership with various world bodies, touched humanity in various ways.
“Bishop Onuoha is the first and current Executive Director, Nigerian Inter-Faith Action Association (NIFAA), a non-governmental set up to mobilise Nigerian faith leaders all over the country, to take action against diseases, poverty and violence in Nigeria. We therefore request our other candidates who are not chosen, to rally round the chosen consensus candidate to ensure victory for God’s Own State.”