- Also disqualifies Tony Nwoye for Anambra North Senatorial zone
Valentine Chineto Ozigbo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the 2021 Anambra State Governorship election of November 6, 2021, has been disqualified by the party’s screening committee for Senate candidates in the 2023 elections.
In the same vein, a Senatorial aspirant under the PDP, Dr Tony Nwoye, has also been disqualified from flying the party’s ticket in the forthcoming 2023 general elections for Anambra North zone.
Though details are still sketchy, multiple sources confirmed that Ozigbo has been screened out of the race to represent the PDP in the contest for Anambra South Senatorial Zone.
On 26 June 2021, he emerged the PDP candidate for the 2021 Anambra State Governorship election at the party’s primary held at the Professor Dora Akunyili Women’s Development Center, Awka, the State capital.
On November 10, 2022, Ozigbo, in a telephone call, conceded the election and congratulated the winner of the election, Professor Chukwuma Soludo.
Ozigbo was born July 20, 1970 and was until his entry into politics, the immediate past President and Chief Executive Officer of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria plc (Transcorp), a diversified conglomerate with strategic investments and core interests in the hospitality, agribusiness and energy sectors. He was appointed to the position in 2019.
Previously, Ozigbo worked as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria-based hospitality company, Transcorp Hotels Plc, a subsidiary of Transcorp, from October 2011 – December 2018.
He also worked in the banking sector, gaining over 17 years of experience with NAL Merchant Bank, Diamond Bank, Continental Trust Bank, FSB International Bank, Standard Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Bank PHB.
Dr. Tony Nwoye, a Senatorial aspirant for Anambra North, who only recently returned back to the party after cross-carpeting to the All Progressive Congress (APC) was disqualified due to reports and petitions filed against him with regard to his alleged penchant for thuggery, assassinations, cultism and the widely celebrated burning of the Anambra State Government house in 2004 when he was said to have led the team of daredevil hoodlums that perpetrated the dastardly act.
Also there are reports that a prominent senior citizen from the South East who once took him under his wings, had earlier submitted a petition against him that borders on fraudulent collection of funds by false means.