2015: Ekweremadu, Nnaji Pick PDP Ticket For Enugu Senatorial Election

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and
Sen. Gilbert Nnaji
Chairman, Senate Committee on
Communications, have won the PDP primary
to contest the 2015 senatorial election in
Enugu state.
Ekweremadu won the Enugu-West senatorial
seat after his opponent; Gov.
Sullivan Chime of Enugu State withdrew from
the race in the primary
conducted in Enugu on Sunday.
Nnaji, representing Enugu-East senatorial zone
was returned after he
secured 231 votes of the 247 accredited votes.
Nnaji’s opponents in the election, former
Minister of Information, Mr
Frank Nweke (Jnr) secured two votes, Mrs
Ifeoma Nwobodo the former
Chief of Staff to Gov. Chime, came last with
one vote.
Mr Nwabueze Okafor, National President,
Association of Local
Government of Nigeria (ALGON), secured three
votes while Mr Everest
Nnaji got two votes.
Mr Chukwuka Utazi the former Commissioner
for Transport in the state
secured the ticket for Enugu-North senatorial
seat to replace Sen.
Ayogu Eze who is contesting the gubernatorial
election.
The primary was monitored by Sen. Anthony
Manzu who led the PDP NASS
election panel and the representatives of
INEC.
Three aspirants, Nweke, Nwobodo and Okafor
were absent in the primary.
The aspirants, who sources said were
aggrieved, held parallel primary
in different parts of the senatorial zone in
which they emerged the
party’s candidates.
In his remarks, Nnaji expressed gratitude to
God for the peaceful
conduct of the primary and for making it
possible for him to win.
He described his election as `a great
challenge’ and promised to
redouble his efforts to bring democratic
dividends to the people of
the zone. ``I will never let you down, I will go
back and make sure I give good and quality
representation to you,’’ he said.