The disclaimer lands in the middle of an unresolved fight over who actually won the All Progressives Congress primary for Imo North, a contest with two declared winners and no agreed outcome three days before the party's candidate submission deadline closes in on the National Assembly.

The disowned document, titled "A Message of Gratitude, Unity, and a Clarion Call to Rebuild Okigwe Zone," had claimed Araraume declared himself the APC's Imo North candidate. His communications team called that false. The former lawmaker distanced himself from the publication, calling it false, unauthorised and the handiwork of mischief makers. In a statement titled "Re: Disclaimer of False and Unauthorised Publications," his office said he has not declared himself the party's candidate and will only communicate through recognised and authorised channels.

The senator's team went further, insisting he remains inside the party's tent. Araraume remains a steadfast, disciplined and committed member of the APC, with his loyalty to the party, its leadership and its ideals described as unwavering. The statement said he is patiently awaiting the party's official position and final decision on the Imo North Senatorial primary, and disclaimed the entire document rather than a single passage. Araraume completely and unequivocally dissociates himself from the publication, describing it as the handiwork of mischief makers and political opportunists whose objective is to sow discord.

Two winners, one seat

The disclaimer does not exist in isolation. It follows a primary that produced conflicting outcomes depending on who is asked.

Araraume's camp says he won decisively. Multiple reports from his media office describe a landslide win across 54 wards in the senatorial district, with one dispatch crediting the victory to the durability of long-standing political structures in the region and adding that he neither attended nor was invited to any meeting where aspirants purportedly withdrew.

The Imo State APC tells a different story entirely. Party spokesman Dr. Onwuasoanya FCC Jones said the Senatorial Primary Election held on Monday, 18th May, 2026, produced only one outcome: the victory of Senator Patrick Chukwuba Ndubueze. According to the party, three other aspirants, Longers Anyanwu, Ike Kenny Odoeme and Gloria Akobundu, voluntarily stepped down for the incumbent senator before the vote, and Ndubueze won across 64 wards, duly declared the standard bearer by the Rear Admiral Williams Kayode (Rtd)-led National Assembly Primary Election Committee.

Even the ward count is disputed: 54 by Araraume's camp, 64 by the party. That single discrepancy captures how far apart the two accounts sit.

The party's statement was pointed on process. It said an appeal window was opened for aspirants unhappy with the result, with the committee waiting at the party secretariat on 47 Okigwe Road to receive petitions, and none arrived. That detail, an empty office at a specific address, is the party's evidence that no formal challenge to Ndubueze's win exists on paper, whatever noise continues on social media.

The denial within the denial

Wednesday's disclaimer did not stop at disowning a single publication. It moved to shut down a second and separate story line: talk of a rift between Araraume and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma.

His office said the two men's relationship is intact. Araraume dismissed reports of any political disagreement with Governor Uzodinma, and the underlying statement was categorical about where any contrary impression comes from. Any suggestion of disagreement, hostility, or political friction between them exists only in the imagination of the authors of the false publications, and should be disregarded, it said, adding that their relationship continues to be guided by mutual respect and a shared commitment to the peace, progress and development of Imo State.

That is a lot of denial for one document. In the space of a single disclaimer, Araraume's team rejected a claimed candidacy, distanced him from talk of party disloyalty and shut down rumors of a governor feud, three separate narratives, one statement.

The pattern is not new for Araraume. In September 2023, his office issued a nearly identical rebuttal after claims he had endorsed the PDP's gubernatorial candidate in Imo State. That statement, issued through his senior special assistant for Legal and Public Affairs, Barrister Uche Anyanwu, called the claims baseless and merely the handiwork of individuals with malicious intent. The language, "mischief makers," "handiwork," "disregard," recurs almost word for word three years apart.

What the party has not said

What the Imo APC has not done is respond directly to Wednesday's disclaimer. Its most recent public position remains the May statement naming Ndubueze the winner. Whether the party views Araraume's camp as still contesting that outcome, or accepts his office's insistence that no rival claim has been made, is unaddressed in anything the party has published since.

That silence leaves the practical question open. A senatorial ticket cannot have two claimants on the ballot. The National Assembly Primary Election Appeal Committee accepted no petitions during its window at the Okigwe Road secretariat, by the party's own account, which would normally close the matter. Yet competing claims of victory continue to circulate weeks later, prompting a disclaimer significant enough for Araraume's team to issue this week.

The unresolved question is procedural, not rhetorical: has the appeal window the party says it opened actually closed, and if so, on what date, with what filings, and under whose signature. Neither the Imo APC nor the national party leadership had addressed that directly as of Wednesday.