{"id":89420,"date":"2023-06-08T10:59:07","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T09:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss"},"modified":"2023-06-08T13:17:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T12:17:42","slug":"2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss","title":{"rendered":"2023 polls: Opponents blackmailed, pitched me against Obi \u2013 Ekwunife rues election loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The senator representing Anambra Central in the National Assembly, Senator Uche Ekwunife has lamented that many people tried to pitch her against the Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate during the last election, Mr Peter Obi.<\/p>\n

The lawmaker spoke in Anambra as she gave an account of her four-year stay in the Senate.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThis is my fourth and last town hall meeting as your senator. The next town hall meeting I will call, will be in my personal capacity. I am here to give an account of my four years\u2019 journey, because I held the position in trust for millions of my constituents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a fulfilled politician, and I\u2019m leaving the stage proud as a politician. Mine was not about occupying office and bearing the name of a senator, but service, and service to the people, and that was what we did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sponsored 30 bills and moved 18 motions. I was the senator who stood on the floor of the Senate and spoke about the non-representation of the South East in the NCC (Nigeria Communications Commission) board, and President Buhari appointed an Igbo son as a non-executive member to represent the people of the South east.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did roads in all the communities that make up the seven local government areas of my constituency.\u201d<\/p>\n

On her defeat in the last election, the politician said it was a result of blackmail by her opponents.<\/p>\n

Ekwunife had lost the senatorial election in February to the candidate of Labour Party, Senator Victor Umeh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel bad that many people tried to pitch me against Peter Obi (presidential candidate of Labour Party), as if I was contesting the election against Obi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was blackmailed by my opponents, to the point that every remark I made during the election was twisted against me. They even went as far as forging my letter head, and issuing out fake press releases with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, during the flag-off of the presidential campaign of the PDP, I was called upon to speak, and when I said that Nigeria needs a strong president, who can stand for the over two hundred million Nigerians, and not a kindergarten president, they went to town that I was referring to Obi as kindergarten president.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat event was televised live, and I did not mention anyone\u2019s name. How could I have been referring to Obi? How did they know that out of the 18 presidential candidates, it was Obi I was referring to?<\/p>\n

\u201cOn election day, they circulated bulk SMS, quoting me as insulting Obi, just to blackmail me and pitch me against Obi.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. The senator representing Anambra Central in the National Assembly, Senator Uche Ekwunife has lamented that many people tried to pitch her against the Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate during the last election, Mr Peter Obi. The lawmaker spoke in Anambra as she gave an account of her four-year stay in the Senate. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":89419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[8911,1570,2140,3578,254,4891],"class_list":["post-89420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-2023-polls","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-ekwunife","tag-nigeria","tag-obi"],"yoast_head":"\n2023 polls: Opponents blackmailed, pitched me against Obi \u2013 Ekwunife rues election loss - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The senator representing Anambra Central in the National Assembly, Senator Uche Ekwunife has lamented that many people t ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2023 polls: Opponents blackmailed, pitched me against Obi \u2013 Ekwunife rues election loss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The senator representing Anambra Central in the National Assembly, Senator Uche Ekwunife has lamented that many people t ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-08T09:59:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-08T12:17:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2023\/06\/sm_1686210310.854029.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"2023 polls: Opponents blackmailed, pitched me against Obi \u2013 Ekwunife rues election loss\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-08T09:59:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-08T12:17:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss\"},\"wordCount\":459,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2023\/06\/sm_1686210310.854029.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2023 polls\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Ekwunife\",\"Nigeria\",\"Obi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/2023-polls-opponents-blackmailed-pitched-me-against-obi-ekwunife-rues-election-loss\",\"name\":\"2023 polls: Opponents blackmailed, pitched me against Obi \u2013 Ekwunife rues election loss - 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