By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
A Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) aspirant for Idemili North and South federal constituency, Barrister Ifeanyi Mbanusi, has vowed to challenge what he described as political rascality in the NDC, to the highest court in Nigeria. This is coming nearly one week after the result of the primary election conducted by the party has yet to be announced. Regretting the shocking development, Barrister Mbanusi confirmed during an exclusive interview that “there was absolutely no primary election in Idemili North and South federal constituency, none whatsoever.” He also revealed that there was no consensus candidate for the Idemili North and South federal constituency for the NDC.
Barrister Ifeanyi Mbanusi is an ardent follower of Mr. Peter Obi, who is being projected as the presidential candidate of the NDC. Mbanusi was formerly in the Labour Party, but later moved to the ADC, and yet, later, he joined the NDC. He is a successful businessman as well as a lawyer and hails from Umuoji in Idemili South local government area of Anambra State. During our interview, he insisted that the NDC must do the right thing and must first reflect internally the high moral standing the party expects to demonstrate to Nigerians in public leadership.
Although the NDC has yet to announce the winners of the party primaries conducted last Friday, a certain Mr. Eric Anyamene is being mentioned as the winner of the Idemili North and South federal constituency ticket of the NDC. Reacting to this, Barrister Mbanusi said that the party can select whom they wish as their candidate, but that the selection process must mirror legal provisions for candidate nomination by political parties. He also cautioned that no one should parade as “the winner” of any primary in the Idemili North and South federal constituency because there was no primary election there. Barr Mbanusi presented several video evidence and pictures to show that there was no primary of NDC in Idemili North and South federal constituency because it was hijacked and disrupted by hired thugs.
Speaking on his legal team commencing action on the matter, Barrister Ifeanyi Mbanusi, also confirmed a pre-action notice released by his legal team on Thursday afternoon. A release by his team on Thursday afternoon, entitled “Pre-action notice,” entreated the party leadership to do the right thing. “We respectfully call on the leadership of the party to immediately conduct a fresh and credible primary election or, in the alternative, convene all aspirants for a lawful and equitable consensus process in compliance with the Electoral Act, 2026,” the statement said, revealing that failure to comply leaves the aspirant with the sole option of challenging the anomaly in a competent court to the highest level.
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