*40 Delegates Voted For Umahi, Onu And Nwajiuba
*245 Delegates Voted For Lawan, Amaechi, Tinubu
An insignificant number of delegates from five States in the South East voted for three of the six presidential aspirants from the region, who participated in the just concluded presidential convention of the All Progressives Congress, APC, INNONEWS gathered
The APC presidential primary was won by former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who polled 1, 271 votes to defeat former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who scored 316 votes to emerge second and Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, who had 235 votes to place third.
Six presidential aspirants from the South East took part in the APC presidential primary held at the Eagle Square, Abuja.
They are Former Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, former Imo State Governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha, Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, former Minister of Information, Ikeobasi Mokelu and the only female aspirant in the race, Uju Ohanenye.
Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani had withdrawn from the contest. Mrs Ohanenye also dropped out of the race during the primary and announced her support for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The South East came to the APC Presidential convention with a total of 285 delegates. Imo State had 81 delegates,Anambra 63, Abia 51, Enugu 51 and Ebonyi State 39 delegates.
Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State scored 38 votes, while Dr. Onu, also from Ebonyi State, had 1 vote.
Nwajiuba from Imo State scored one vote. Okorocha, a former Governor of the State had no vote, a clear indication that the votes of 80 delegates from Imo State went to Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, whose presidential bid was strongly backed by Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State.
Uzodimma and Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, had drummed support for Lawan before the presidential primary of the APC.
There are also strong indications that the votes of delegates from Abia State, where Kalu holds sway, may have also gone to Lawan, while the votes of delegates from Anambra and Enugu may have split between Amaechi and Lawan.
Analysts of the APC Presidential convention contend that two of the six South East APC presidential aspirants received a total of 40 votes at the convention (Umahi 38, Onu 1, Nwajiuba 1), with the votes of 245 delegates shared by aspirants outside the South East geo political zone.
The South East Coalition for Good Governance, SECG, a socio political group had blamed the dismal outing of the South East APC Presidential aspirants on the political leadership of Igboland and the delegates.
In a statement in Enugu signed by its President, Emmanuel Okwu, the group stated that “It is evidently clear that the delegates from the South East, in the PDP and APC sold out. Majority of them voted for Atiku Abubakar in the PDP and Ahmed Lawan in the APC during the presidential primaries of the two parties”