TWO parallel national executive councils emerged for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) yesterday in what appears like a fresh crisis in the party.
One of the factions loyal to Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State returned Dr. Victor Ike Oye national chairman and the governor as chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) at its convention held in Awka. The rival faction is led by Mr.Edozie Njoku.
The Oye faction also announced the wife of the late leader of the party, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bianca, as a member of the BoT. Mrs Ojukwu was absent at the gathering. Also absent were leading members like Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, Senator Victor Umeh, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi.
The election was done by affirmation. Oye thanked the party for giving them the opportunity to serve for another four years. He said he knew there were forces against them, adding there was nothing anyone could do without God.
According to him, “We believe in APGA and what it stands for, we must continue to work together and we will never fail to thank Governor Willie Obiano for being a man of integrity and unshakeable force.”
Oye said Obiano had served APGA and Anambra people well and wondered what would have happened to the party without him.
“I have no other business in APGA but to win elections, we have what it takes to take over power in Nigeria .Anambra is APGA and will remain so even after Obiano’s tenure.”
“But we cannot function well without building a secretariat in Abuja” he added while appealing to Obiano to help in actualizing that dream. At the other convention held in Owerri,Njoku said the Awka meeting was illegal as there was an exparte order obtained by the APGA BoT stopping it.
His words: “Delegates from the 36 states including Abuja, came and I emerged as the national chairman. We are now the authentic leadership of APGA, you see that APGA members are now happy. “Like what we are saying , what they are carrying out in Awka is an illegality.
They just brought few people in Government House, and say that they are doing convention. “But here, the original members of the party have come to decide who they want to be their national chairman.” On the exparte order, Njoku said:
“There was an exparte order which stopped that meeting by the National Executive Council, NEC, the meeting which took place on the 14 May, as I am talking to you now, by that exparte order, it has stopped every decision that came out of that their NEC, meeting.
“That meeting in which they also expelled the Board of Trustees members which is meant to have started their life with that of the NEC.
“As a result of the sack, of the BOT, members, the BOT, members went to court and got and exparte order stopping Victor Oye and APGA, from using anything that came out of the 14 May, NEC meeting including holding a convention.
“Remember I am the first Vice National Chairman of APGA, in 2002. By God grace we have emerged to move our great party forward. We need to start with reconciliation of our members who left APGA, and bring them back.
APGA, is supposed to be a national party, that has its root in the Southeast. It is no longer going to be a party situated in one place with few people determining what others will do.
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