The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, on Sunday, denied media reports that he had endorsed the National Auditor of the All Progressives Congress, Chief George Moghalu, as the candidate of the party for the November 18 poll in Anambra State.
Speaking with our correspondent on the telephone, Ngige, a former governor of the state, said he had not endorsed anybody for the race.
The minister also announced the constitution of a committee, which he heads, to work on the modalities of picking a consensus candidate or reducing the number of aspirants to two.
Ngige stated that on Saturday in his Alor home, in the Idemili South Local Government Area of the state, he called a meeting of stakeholders of the party, including governorship aspirants.
He explained that at the meeting, he told the stakeholders that the party would want them to look for a consensus candidate for the poll or reduce the number of aspirants.
Ngige added, “I told them that we can’t go into our primary with 10 aspirants. That would be unwieldy. We need to look for a consensus candidate or trim down our aspirants to two before going into the primary.”
He said at the end of the meeting, a three-man committee was set up to work out the modalities to arrive at a consensus candidate or the pruning of the aspirants.
The former governor added that the committee was made up of himself; a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Agunwa Aniekwe; and a former commissioner in the state, Chief Chris Atuegwu.
Ngige stated that the APC would go into the November poll with a formidable candidate, and as a result, it ought to work hard to ensure that its primary election was well handled.
