The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yiltwada, has said the party will allow the court to decide the candidate for the Imo West Senatorial zone, which is being contested by former Governor Rochas Okorocha and the incumbent governor, Hope Uzodinma.

Yiltwada made the remarks while featuring on Politics Today on Channels TV monitored by Nigerian Tribune, on Monday night in Abuja.

Uzodinma had earlier picked the senatorial ticket, but Okorocha approached the court arguing that he was the authentic candidate for the zone, which he claimed was hijacked by the governor.

Tribune Online reports that last month, Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered Uzodinma to, as a matter of fact, stop presenting himself as the candidate of the APC for the Imo West Senatorial election scheduled to hold on January 16, 2027, the same day as the presidential election.

Egwuatu, in his ruling, stated that Uzodinma did not win the May 18 primary election conducted by the APC and monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), adding that the evidence presented before the court proved Okorocha got the majority of the votes cast at the poll and should be declared the winner of the election. Interestingly, however, the Imo State chapter of the APC has maintained that Governor Uzodimma remains its candidate.

Speaking on the issue, the APC chairman said, “It is not a crisis. It is a court case. One of them went to court. Hope has appealed, and we’ll allow the court to take its course. Of course, I’m talking to them, politically. You (to the presenter) just sit down on this chair, and you just begin to make assumptions. I am a Professor of politics and this is what I do every day. That is what I’m saying that it is a court case. We are now in the court settling, but behind the scenes, we are doing political management of the case.”

Asking if the party will return Godswill Akpabio as Senate President if it (APC) wins the presidential and the parliamentary elections, Yiltwada said the process will be left for the Senate to decide.

Yiltwada condemned the privatisation process under the supervision of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying the process, rather than making positive and meaningful impacts, impoverished Nigerians more, adding that the government of President Bola Tinubu is gradually restoring the hope of those who were affected by the privatisation some years back.

“A lot of people have lost their jobs because of privatisation. They were not paid gratuity; they were not settled; they were not paid pension. These people were not classified as being hungry. We had thousands of people who didn’t have job because the companies got closed down. The indirect and direct jobs were all shut down.

“Today, we’ve restored all those gratuities; salaries are being paid, people who are affected indirectly are being restored. Most of the companies are now coming back. They are springing up, and we don’t… Now, we have cars that are made in Nigeria, assembled in Nigeria. Most new cars are now coming up; people are buying them. Imports are reducing. We have more production in the country,” he added. (Nigerian Tribune)