The gubernatorial ambitions of Oseloka Obaze, the Anambra State gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was dealt a major blow on Thursday after a faction led by the suspended chairman of the party, Prince Ken Emeakayi adopted Governor Willie Obiano for re-election.

Umeakayi had during a previous rally, issued a five day ultimatum to the party’s national chairman, Ahmed Makarfi to substitute Obaze as the party’s candidate or risk the faction’s withdrawal of their support for Obaze who they alleged was not a registered member of the party.

Addressing journalists on Thursday after a rally of party supporters at the Women Development Centre to adopt Obiano as their candidate, Emeakayi said the need to take the stand followed the expiration of the ultimatum.

Emeakayi said: “We are officially adopting the candidate of APGA, Chief Willie Obiano as our candidate for the Anambra governorship election. We took into cognizance the fact that in the 2011 and 2015 presidential elections respectively, the APGA adopted the PDP Candidate, Jonathan as their candidate.

“Today is payback time and we have decided that we are adopting the APGA candidate as our candidate. This is because the candidate the PDP is fielding is not a legitimate candidate. He is not a member of our party, his name is not on our register and he knows that.

“What our action means is not that we are leaving PDP. We still remain PDP, just the same way APGA members who supported our presidential candidate did not leave their party.

“We will for the purpose of the election work for APGA, we will run a separate campaign in all the communities in Anambra State, and we will ensure that APGA wins the election. We believe that Anambra is not broken, and there is no need to mend it.”

He further hinted that his team consulted widely at both local government and ward levels to arrive at the consensus maintaining that Obaze’s struggle was in futility as he would surely be removed even if he eventually wins the November 10 elections.