Akomas picks guber nomination form, says he is ready for the primaries

Former deputy governor of Abia State, Comrade Chris Akomas has picked nomination and expression of interest forms for Abia 2019 gubernatorial position under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Akomas speaking to journalists after the coordinators of his campaign organization from the 17 local government area of the state singed his nomination at his campaign secretariat in Afaraukwu, Umuahia North council area said that he is also prepared to face other contenders of the coveted seat in his at the primaries scheduled to hold later this year.

Reacting to insinuations that he was no longer in the race, Akomas said that it was laughable for people to say so and stressed that there was no way he could have chickened out from a race that he was prepared and much qualified to contest.

The former deputy and 2010 governorship candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) while backing the agitation for the APC to field a governorship candidate of Ngwa extraction in 2019 stated that it would injustice and distortion of the Abia Charter of Equity if candidate from any other part of the state emerges as the party’s flag bearer.

Akomas who reinstated his resolve to hand over power to any person that will emerge candidate of his party from Abia North in 2023, stated that equity demands that since Abia North and Central have ruled the state for 8years respectively, it would be morally right for their party members in Abia North and Central to support their Ngwa counterparts now that they (Ngwa) were yet to complete their 8 years circle.

“This contest for the Office of the Governor of Abia State is an important one for me and for Abians as well. I am a former deputy governor and I served well. I was a commissioner in this state and I served well and brought innovations. I was an SA (Special Adviser), I brought innovations and creativity and the evidence are all over. So, if we are looking for somebody who knows the way and what to do to hit the ground running, Chris Akomas is the person.

“I am interested in that which will benefit everybody. I am not a noise maker, I get things done. I was in APC when it was like a taboo to be in APC. I campaigned for President Muhammadu Buhari and gubernatorial candidate; Anyim Nyerere Anyim and for anybody to say that I am being planted in the party by the PDP is just a simple propaganda that is insulting to the sensibility of members of the party, because the party people know their own. I joined the party as early as February 2014 and I have been in this party since then. Others have just come because the party is the ruling party now, but we came when people didn’t have faith in the party.

“So, how can anybody look me in the face and said that I am being sponsored. I campaigned and crisscrossed the state even in the absence of my then principal, Theodore Orji. I was the one that went through the processes of the election. I stood in the court and signed all the papers and the same person that collected the Certificate of Return. It is very insulting for anybody to say that am being sponsored. If I leave APC to another party today, I will still make meaning. But I am not going to do that. I have invested so much and the fair weather people who only came when things have started moving well for us in APC.

“Now that I have gotten the form, I am going to fill and return it and the next thing is to win the primaries.”

On cost of the party’s nomination and expression of interest forms, the Nenu born politician said that they didn’t have any other option than to purchase the forms because of what he and others believed in after the party reviewed their initial price before arriving at a new one.

Akomas also used the opportunity provided for by the event to officially open his campaign office in Umuahia.