OBI, UMEH WANT TO SELL OFF APGA, OKORIE CRIES OUT
•Obi
The founder and factional Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie has cried out that his arch rivals, Chief Victor Umeh and Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, have perfected plans to sell off APGA.
Okorie raised the alarm following the continued association of Governor Obi with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the plan of Umeh's faction of APGA to fuse with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
The APGA chairman, in a statement made available to Daily Sun said the political macabre dance by Obi and Umeh was a betrayal that amounted to the unkindest cut in the heart of the national leader of APGA, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, whose political persuasion and mindset was well known to him.
His words: 'Chief Umeh's betrayal of selling out to ACN will make the legendary Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dr. Michael Okpara turn very sadly in their graves. On the part of Governor Peter Obi, he is not yet done with his funding of the crisis in APGA; he has for a long time become more PDP than any of the PDP governors. He has since abandoned his primary function of governing Anambra State to now operate in the Presidency.'
Okorie said for many years he had prayed and expected Governor Obi to complete his betrayal of the party that brought him to power by defecting to the PDP. 'It now appears that his unwritten agreement with his allies in the PDP is to destroy APGA and erase it from the list of political parties before decamping along with PDP agents who have been posted to APGA to assist him in the demolition exercise.
'These agents have since been appointed candidates for various elective positions in their faction of our savagely pummeled party. To ensure the success of their conspiracy against Ndigbo, Obi and Umeh recruited collaborators in strategic positions in INEC,' he claimed.
He said APGA as a progressive political party was receptive to political alliance with parties of like-minds, adding that it had always been the position of APGA that post-election alliance was more meaningful and sustaining.
Okorie, therefore, said negotiating the terms of such alliance was usually based on measurable political value of the alliance partners, adding that claims to electoral victories by parties were easy to verify.
'What Obi and Umeh are doing with their faction of APGA is to sell off the political patrimony of those they purport to lead without any known and satisfactory terms of engagement. ACN and PDP are hereby cautioned in their interest to beware of political tricksters, who are politically worthless,' Okorie cautioned.
He noted that political negotiations and agreements were better carried out by political parties and not individuals and cultural associations. Okorie disclosed that the plot to ruin APGA began when Obi and Umeh started to lure the aging Ikemba of Nnewi to their side at the beginning of the APGA crisis.
He said as soon as the duo got Ojukwu to their side they proceeded to divest him of the grip of the party.
According to him, as soon as they boxed the Ikemba to a corner believing he would never move against them for as long as the APGA crisis lasted, the duo moved to tear the party into shreds.