Ebonyi 2023: APGA senatorial candidate, Eleje upbeat on chances at poll

[From CHINEDU NWAFOR, Abakaliki]

Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for Ebonyi South Senatorial zone, in the 2023 general elections, Chief Ifeanyi Eleje, said his party has a unique brand to sell to the people of Ebonyi State in the 2023 elections, and expressed hope that the people would embrace it, for the good of the State.

Eleje who stated this in a chat with Journalists in his Afikpo county home, the APGA Guber Candidate in the State, Professor Benard Ifeanyichukwu Odoh and his deputy, Dr Nkata Chuku, are a unique brand packaged by the party for Ebonyi people.

According, going through the track records of the APGA team would tell anyone that the party is prepared to offer the best to Ebonyians.

Mr Eleje said contrary to what some people think, neither Governor David Umahi who is the Senatorial candidate of the APC for the zone nor other senatorial candidates of other political parties, was a threat to his quest to represent the people of Ebonyi South zone at the red chambers, come 2023.

He said his ambition to represent the zone at the Senate is on the platform of APGA, and was not bothered about other political parties and their candidates who are in the race with him.

The Senatorial hopeful noted that people are now wiser and no longer vote for political parties but personalities, saying, “people are going to vote based on the people that will impact their lives.”

Mr Eleje who said he had much respect for Governor Umahi, disclosed that his  entry into the Senatorial race, was never to challenge Governor, just as he said, he didn’t see him (Umahi) as a threat to his ambition.

Eleje said: “I don’t think anybody is a threat to my ambition. My ambition is on the platform of APGA. Governor Umahi is a respected old boy of my school, Government College, Afikpo, and I’m the President of the Old of Boys Association. I hold him in high regards, he has done alot of interventions in the school.

“But he was contesting for President and I came in to contest for Senate. I didn’t come to challenge him. For candidates of other political parties, I don’t know much about them. I have spoken about the incumbent Senator, Michael Ama Nnachi and the Labour Party Senatorial candidate, Linus Okorie, I don’t know much about him. They are not threats to my ambition.”

Mr Eleje said the APGA team in Ebonyi State was doing aggressive sensitization across the State for people to know more about the party, adding that APGA had become a credible alternative to other two major political parties in the State, considering the internal crisis ravaging them.

“The APGA is already known across the zone. The other parties you claim people know, are in confusion. Right now, they don’t know who their candidates are. They are enmeshed in all kinds of controversies. I agree with you that a lot needs to be done for people to know the logo to look out for when they want to vote and we will consciously continue to do that.

“We have been visiting communities, churches and we will continue to engage all groups to create sensitization. The people are already feeling disengaged from the people leading them and they want to make a change in the coming elections”, Eleje asserted.

He said the incumbent Senator representing the zone, Michael Ama Nnachi, had failed to offer effective representation for the people of Ebonyi South zone, and promised to right the wrongs if he emerged Senator, come 2023.

“In my view, I don’t think Ebonyi South has had representation in this dispensation, and I’m not saying it to denigrate Senator Ama Nnachi. It’s probably his own understanding of what a Senator should do. If I’m to speak mildly for myself: as a stakeholder from Ebonyi South, since he has been in the Senate, I have never met him and is somebody I knew before he went to the Senate. He is an old boy of my school.

“So, if I, with my relationship and exposure, have not met him, and I live in Abuja this period he has been there, talk less of people who do not have this access? If I have that impression that I can’t make an input into legislative issues that affects me, I leave you to imagine the gap that exists between the people of this area and their Senator. So, I don’t think we have a representation.

“When I go to the Senate, I will know the things that available in the Senate and I will know what to do. And to answer your question directly, let me just disabuse your mind. I’m not going to buy people motorcycles and I’m going to get involved in buying volkanizer machine too, because in my view, that’s not empowerment. I’m going to engage the people, I’m going to have townhall meetings, it’s when you meet people, when you speak to people that you know what their challenges are.

“There is health insurance scheme going-on. You can actually get health insurance essecially for women in villages, so that they can have access to medicare. I was able to secure five for my people and I know people in the National Assembly who secure up to 50 chances. I’m just mentioning one because I have come across it. I know people who have register of their people who are unemployed and who is a graduate in which area, for the purpose of getting job for them. “We are not going there to buy big cars, no. You see, people go into political offices and the moment they get there, they are already thinking about next election and when you think like that, what you will be doing is to get things that will get you voted in, in the next election. I’m not aware if my Senator has ever held a town hall meeting since he got elected. So, I feel these gaps need to be filled.”