Maduako Igbokwe I Friday, June 2, 2023
UMUAHIA – Abia State Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance APGA, Amb. Onukwubiri Sunday has stated that the party is one and united in the state, urging the few individuals creating problems to join hands with his executives.
He also spoke on the reasons some party clowns moved to impersonate him during the recent APGA congress.
According to him, his executive was given recognition at the recently convention held in Awka Anambra state capital because of peaceful and orderly nature it conducted the state Congress last month.
Onukwubiri who spoke to our reporter in Awka during the national convention said some few individuals from Abia state who wanted to impersonate me were sent out of the convention arena, because their names were not captured by Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.
“This singular act show that there is only one recognized APGA executive in Abia state” he said.
He regretted that despite all things done to make these few individuals to join hands with party, they continued with their clique against Prof Gregory Ibe.
According to him, these set of people who frustrated Prof Gregory Ibe and APGA chances in Abia state wanted to continue to ruin the potential and chances of the party in the state.
He said they want to remain relevant in the state, working against the party interest .
“They constitute themselves into stumbling blocks to development of APGA in the state. Their actions cannot augur well for the party in the state. The few individuals wanted to bring back those people who gathered against Prof Gregory Ibe back and we say no . We don’t want them back ” he said.
According to him, they defrauded Prof Gregory Ibe during the election and they have no moral right to remain at the administrative level of the party.
” National executive of party will send a committee or panel that normally oversee the Congress, unfortunately ,when the national sent the committee, some of the members of the national working committee from Abia state, constitute themselves into a committee doing what they were not supposed to do. Mind you ,whatever, you want to do, you must consult with the state chairman and his executive and they went ahead doing the wrong things without the consent of the executive.
“They advised those they were sponsoring for elective offices to pick forms. These few individuals calling themselves stakeholders, cliquing against Prof Gregory Ibe, knew they are doing the wrong but they continued with it. We know that they are not faithful to the party and they cannot deny it.
In fact, what they are constituting in the state cannot augur well with the party and we want the party to grow. Prof Gregory Ibe contested for governor in the state and all of them gathered together and worked against him, even when they benefited from him. They pretended to be working for him, while only their only interest were his money. They want to bring these people back ,all of them have denied Prof Gregory Ibe and we say no ,that the right things must be done.
Graciously, the national recognized us and that is the reason we were inside convention Hall and the other characters were not allowed to participate in the convention. They came to convention with many buses but the national said, no we have names and list of delegates members and they were asked leave the venue.
They nominated delegates and when they called my name, Amb. Onukwubiri Sunday,one of them said he was me. He did it in open place, he wanted to be Amb. Onukwubiri Sunday and that is exactly what they wanted to do in Abia state.
I brought out my identity card,but he could not even identify himself and they were stopped and turned back by the national and INEC who had come to monitor the convention.
Honestly, i want to commend Prof Gregory Ibe for his uprightness in making sure that the right things are done in Abia state APGA. He is a strongman and a nice man with good character.”
Meanwhile, the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Festus Okoye, speaking shortly after the convention said he was at the venue to monitor the APGA national Congress.
He said , “For any political party to organize a convention, it must give a statuary notice to INEC to come and monitor them. APGA gave the commission a notice to come and monitor its convention, that is why we are here.
It is because of the invitation that I am here personally, leading the delegations and we have delegates from Abuja and Awka office. We have regulatory responsibility to all the political parties based on the constitution of the parties.
If they are doing any thing against the constitution of the party, we will call for the right things.
Whatever, they did today, they must file names of the new national officers, including Board of Trustees BoT members to INEC.
Before any political party go for convention, it must submit the list of delegates and authentic constitution of the party to INEC.
It must give INEC the guidelines to regulate the conduct of the Congress. It must also tell us whether the Congress will be bases on affirmative process or not. These are things we look up to and we are here because we recognize the convention” he said.
