Consensus candidate will ensure victory for APC in Abia – Ikonne

Former governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011 and now governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia state, Prince Paul Ikonne, has said that if all the stakeholders and the party could settle for a consensus candidate, his party’s victory will be made easy in the coming general election.
He however assured that if given the opportunity as the candidate ofAPC, he will make Abia conducive for business “knowing that the people of the state are business oriented and take the state to a hight.” Speaking with newsmen yesterday in Abuja after he obtained his nomination form and expression of interest at the APC national secretariat to contest the party’s Abia governorship ticket, Prince Ikonne explained that the people of Abia know that he actually won election in 2011, giving assurance that his government “will put Abia where it belongs.” When asked for his comment on whether the party should conduct the primary election using direct or indirect system, Ikonne said: “As long as our party come together with a consensus candidate which we will eventually go for, we will come out strongly.
“Those trying to destabilize the party one way or the other will cave in by God’s grace and key into this course for us to rescue and take Abia to a greater height.” On the adoption of indirect primaries, he said; “It depends on the peculiarities of states and the environment.
“The party national leadership is very wise, but there are peculiarities, like in Abia, indirect primaries and consensus will definitely give us what we want.
“Stakeholders are yet to meet, we are still going to meet, and by the time we meet, we will come out with a blue print of the way forward.”