By Leonard Okachie
Umuahia, June 16, 2026
An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Abia, Mr Mezie Esiaga, has expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the party’s governorship primary, saying it portends the end of the road for the party ahead of 2027.
Esiaga said this during an interactive session with newsmen in Umuahia on Monday, where he described as “a sham”, the primary election that produced businessman Eric Opah as the party’s governorship flag bearer.
“The party risks a disastrous outing in the 2027 governorship election, if it fails to address the injustice against long-standing members of the party,” he said.
According to him, the primary election was initially between Chief Henry Ikoh and Chief Mascot Kalu, suddenly a third aspirant, Mr Eric Opah, surfaced shortly before the primary.
“I saw Eric Opah for the first time on May 14 during a meeting in Umuahia, few hours to our primary.
“As one of the founding members of this party, it surprised me that someone who, to the best of my knowledge, had barely spent two weeks in APC, suddenly emerged as our governorship candidate,” Esiaga said.
He said that Opah, who was recently reported to have publicly commended the administration of Gov. Alex Otti, could not be considered fit to be APC standard bearer.
He asked, “How can a man who recently praised Otti, saying his people in Lagos will organise a reception for him because he is doing well, suddenly become APC governorship candidate against Otti?
“It is difficult for me to understand what happened during that primary.”
Esiaga charged the national leadership of APC to hand the governorship ticket to Ikoh, since Kalu had earlier withdrawn from the primary election.
He said that Ikoh, an industrialist and former Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation (FMSTI), had showed unrivaled commitment to APC, having invested heavily to grow the party structure in Abia.
He also said that Ikoh, who is the Renewed Hope Ambassador in Abia, had both grassroots support and statewide appeal to win the state for APC.
“The party should revisit the outcome of the Abia primary and hand its governorship ticket to him, if we truly want to compete in 2027,” he said.
He feared that anything to the contrary would spell colossal failure for APC, “worse than the 2023 outing with Chief Ikechi Emenike as the party’s governorship candidate.
“I am not a prophet, neither was my father, but I prophesied that Emenike was not the candidate APC needed and that he would fail woefully and it came to pass.
“History may repeat itself, if Ikoh is not on the ballot, and the result we will get may be worse than our performance in 2023.
“I am preparing a letter for President Bola Tinubu because this matter requires urgent attention.
“We cannot afford to make mistakes that will hand victory to our opponents even before the election,” the APC stalwart said.
He warned that ignoring his advice could be disastrous for the party at the polls.
