The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia has responded to a video circulating on social media claiming that Chief Henry Ikoh won the party’s governorship primaries in the state.
The video was said to have emanated from three people in a beer parlour. In the video, the three men discussed how they would destabilise the party if Chief Henry Ikoh was not announced by the National Working Committee of the party as the governorship candidate for Abia in the 2027 elections.
But addressing journalists at the party Secretariat in Umuahia on Monday, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Abia State, Uche Aguoru, re-emphasised that the governorship primary was won by Chief Eric Opah.
According to him, the governorship primary, held on May 21, 2026, was peacefully conducted under the supervision of the duly constituted election committee, whose chairman publicly announced the outcome after the collation of results from across the state.
He said Eric Opah emerged winner of the contest after polling 125,977 votes to defeat Chief Henry Ikechukwu Ikoh, who came a distant second with 5,905 votes.
Aguoru insisted that since the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC was yet to formally ratify and release the official result, the figures announced by the primary election committee remained the authentic outcome of the exercise. On that premise, he said, Eric Opah remained the governorship candidate of the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“It became necessary for the party to address this beer parlour gossip by some individuals. Everyone witnessed the peaceful conduct of our primaries. It is, however, laughable how some individuals, under the influence of alcohol, would declare their intention to cause problems in the party,” he said.
Aguoru also alleged that those individuals in the video could have been under the influence of alcohol, or were being sponsored by the ruling Labour Party in the state.
“I want to state categorically that these individuals are sponsored. They are afraid of the calibre of candidates produced by the APC. But one thing is clear: instead of using money to peddle falsehood, the Labour Party should use the money to pay pensioners and build physical smart schools, not social media smart schools,” he added.
Reacting to the delay in release of names of successful candidates to fly the flag of the party, Aguoru revealed that the National Working Committee of the party was being thorough to avoid litigations that might arise after the announcement of successful candidates.
He appealed to party faithful and supporters to trust the process, dismissing insinuations that certain individuals would be shortchanged, hence the delay in the release of the names of the party’s candidates.
Responding to questions on whether the departure of Senator Nkechi Nwogu signalled a crack in the party, Aguoru said the party was not aware that she had left, as there had been no official statement announcing such.
He insisted that Abia APC remained intact, determined and focused on winning the 2027 governorship election and other seats, reiterating that a party of over 200,000 members was not bothered about beer parlour gossip by three people and their sponsors.
Aguoru also used the opportunity to dismiss allegations that Eric Opah, the party’s governorship candidate, was not a member of the APC, maintaining that, for the records, Opah joined the APC in 2023 and had since been making strong contributions at the ward, local government and state levels.
