The member representing Afikpo/Edda Federal Constituency of Ebonyi State in the House of Representatives, Iduma Enwo Igariwey, has denied reports of his disqualification from the All Progressives Congress, APC, primary election.
Social and conventional media platforms were flooded with news Igariwey’s disqualification from contesting the party primaries on thk
But Igariwey who was declared the winner of the primary by the House of Representatives primary election committee for the constituency, told journalists that nobody disqualified him.
He alleged that mischief makers smuggled ‘Idu Igariwe’ which he said is not his official name in a document to cause confusion and deceive the public.
He said, “I feel great, I feel very happy for my victory in the House of Representatives primaries in Afikpo/Edda Federal Constituency.
“It is a demonstration of where my constituency has placed me over the past years of my representation. It was quite resounding and I am so grateful and very happy.
“God forbid bad thing! Nobody disqualified me. I saw a document that doesn’t bear my name and if you look at that document, you will see that it is Iduma Igariwey Enwo that is there and which is my official name.
“So, whatever that is being circulated is completely strange to me, it is unknown to me.
“Let me speak generally about disqualification of a candidate. I am a lawmaker, a consummate lawmaker for that matter.
“I have been in the National Assembly and this is my 3rd tem, going for my 4th term. I have also been in the constitutional review committee since 2015. So, I am quite conversant with the constitution and other instrument with the electoral act.
“We were carefully making sure that those who aspire to represent this country in any capacity are not just ambushed and that is why we created Section 85 of the Electoral Act.
“Take your time, look at the Electoral Act. You will find out that to disqualify an aspirant or a prospective candidate, you must do it within the requirements as contained in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“So, you don’t just wake up and say you have disqualified anybody, that’s not the way it is expected to happen under any political party and not just this great party called the APC.
“It must be maybe my certificates are not correct, my age is not up to the required age or that I belong to a secret society or that, that, that!!! They are all stated in the constitution and it is clear.
“This must be reasons why a party can disqualify anybody and before that is done, there must be fair hearing inevitable aspect to it. So, you don’t just see a document or purport to mean that you have been disqualified, no.
“I was speaking generally but in this case, what is said to have been seen, is not me. I think they wrote Idu Igariwe. It is not my real spelling of Igariwey, I don’t answer Idu, I am Iduma Enwo Igariwey and that’s my name.
“Maybe, somebody tried to smuggle in something that shouldn’t be there in the first place.”
Earlier, chairman of the panel that conducted the primaries, Alphonsus Nwali, said Igariwey scored 5, 368 votes in Edda and 9,785 votes in Afikpo, totalling 15,157 votes in the constituency to emerge candidate of the party for the 2027 election.
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