The 50-year-old Mr Ozigbo polled 62 out of 218 votes to beat 13 other aspirants who were on the ballot.

Some aspirants had withdrawn from the primary out of protest because of the new list of delegates that was released by the National Working Committee of the party.

Besides, a faction of the party had held a parallel primary elsewhere in Awka which produced Ugochukwu Uba as its own candidate.

The candidates defeated by Mr Ozigbo included Uche Ukwunife, a serving senator, who scored 44 votes and came third in the primary which was conducted late into Saturday night.

Obiora Okonkwo, a billionaire businessman, came second with 58 votes.

Mr Ozigbo was the president and chief executive officer of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp) from 2019 to 2020.

He has worked with several banks in Nigeria, including Diamond Bank and the United Bank for Africa.