National Assembly aspirants under the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Anambra State were yesterday held hostage in a hostel in Awka for daring to address a press conference to protest the alleged non conduct of primaries of the party in the state.

The aspirants also rejected  the primary elections, which the leadership of the party claimed were won by Senator Andy Uba for Anambra South , Mrs. Uche Ekwunife for Anambra Central and Mrs. Margery Okadigbo for Anambra North.

Although the aspirants successfully held the press conference in which they accused those declared winners as introducing unconventional method into the APC primary, a large number of young men suspected to be thugs who positioned themselves outside the hotel dared them to come out of the venue. The stakeholders had told journalists that the names touted as winners of the primary elections were false, insisting that no primary election was held in the state.

Chief Nelson Onubogu, an aspirant for Anambra North senatorial zone, who spoke on behalf of others said the chances of the party would be jeopardized in the 2019 general elections in the state if the problem was not properly addressed.

He said: “Our party scheduled its primary election for 4th October, and we mobilized our supporters for the election, but to our surprise, we could not find the committee for the conduct of the election.

“The exercise was deferred to October 5, yet we have not seen the committee. We have called all their phone lines, but none of them has picked our calls.

“Why  we want to tell the world about this injustice in our party, and to call on the leadership of our party to quickly wade into the problem and ensure the conduct of the primary election, because none has been held.

Another aspirant, Mr. Ebele Obi, who is contesting for Anambra Central ticket, described their opponents in the race for the tickets as fair weather politicians, who joined APC because they wanted power and were only trying to foist themselves on the party using the same method they deployed in their previous party, the PDP.

He said: “These people are not members of our party. They joined the party because we are in power. If we did not win the election in 2015, they would not have joined us. “In the case of my opponent, Uche Ekwunife, she was barred from contesting election in PDP and was also sent packing from the Senate because of this singular attitude, and here she is in APC, trying to do the same thing.”