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Tag: Imo APC crisis

  • Okorocha campaigns for AA’s Nwosu at APC rally

    Imo State Governor Rocha Okorocha on Saturday took advantage of the southeast zonal rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to campaign for the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) Uche Nwosu.

    Senator Hope Uzodinma is the APC governorship candidate but the governor is backing his son-in-law, Nwosu, who lost out in the battle for APC ticket.

    Despite the presence of wife of the President Aisha Buhari represented by wife of the vice president, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo and Uzodinma, Okorocha told voters to pick Nwosu over the APC candidate.

    He however declared support for President Muhammadu Buhari in the presidential race.

    According to Okorocha: “Imo victory for Buhari is designed sealed for Buhari. In Imo state we have 47 political parties and one of the perfect alliances is Action Alliance led by Uche Nwosu.

    “Nwosu is APC in spirit. APC owes Imo people an apology because of the injustice meted to Imo people.

    “In Imo state, Nwosu will win Imo state. It is not anti -party. We refused imposition in Imo state.”

    He went on:  “I am in charge and no sane youth will come and create tension in this state.

    “ Let me say this madam First Lady, this time around we are not here to ask you to campaign for Buhari, what my wife has done is to tell you that Buhari is on ground.

    Mrs. Osinbajo called on APC supporters lo vote for President Muhammadu Buhari.

    According to her: “I am here to represent the wife of the President of the wife of Nigeria. She has asked me to greet you all.

    “She said that everybody should vote APC, and that APC will win in every state. She says nobody should be sleeping on the day of election.

    “There must be no fighting because government is interested in women and youths.

    “I am proud to be a Nigeria woman because Nigeria women are beautiful, strong and successful. We are happy with the President because he is taking us to the next level with APC.”

    Southeast zone coordinator of APC, Nkechi Okorocha, said: “You all are welcome to the Southeast APC rally for women and youths in Imo state.  In 2019 our president will resume that seat that he has started.

    “We thank President Muhammadu Buhari for his genuine leadership and love for this country.

    “For the future to be secured Buhari is the only hope. We are here to say that Buhari must return.

    “The reason is that Buhari loves the unity of this country, he loves this country, so there is no vacancy in Aso Rock.

    “It is only Buhari that can complete what they have started. So that we know that indeed Nigeria is united.”

    Diginitries who attended the event included the Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu; Imo state governorship candidate of APC Senator Hope Uzodimma; Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu (Imo North); Abia APC governorship candidate, Uche Ogar and Imo candidate of Action Alliance, Uche Nwosu.

  • Imo APC crisis irreconcilable, says Okorocha

    •Uzodinma, Nwosu snub APC peace parley

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha yesterday gave a damming verdict on the post-primary election crisis rocking the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC): the situation is irreconcilable.

    Okorocha told the Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje-led APC Reconciliation Committee that everything had been done to resolve the issues but to no avail.

    The governor noted that the development had heightened the fears that the party may not come out of the post-primary crisis before the general elections early next year.

    In his opening remarks at the meeting at the Imo International Convention Centre (IICC), Owerri, the state capital, Okorocha said he honoured the meeting because of his relationship with the Ganduje and former Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio.

    He said: “There shouldn’t have been a crisis in the party because of the affinity of the members. We are like one big family. When we came in 2011, it was a miracle. The who-is-who in Imo politics were against us, but we won that election. We moved from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to APC because of the name of President Muhammadu Buhari, which is synonymous with integrity. I am a foundation member of the APC. I suggested the name APC.

    “When we started, we were called names; we were made to look like aliens in our state. This is the only state you have elected office holders that are of the APC extraction. Those Adams Oshiomhole gave the tickets were not APC members. The worst political injustice in the history of Nigeria happened in Imo.”

    Okorocha added: “The only reason these people are here is because of President Buhari, not because they have benefitted. The issue we have is with Adams Oshiomhole. He stole the mandate of the people and gave it away for reasons best known to him. The people here are concerned because the name of the person on APC ticket is not the candidate of their choice.

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    “Let me make bold to say that this is not about the people here but across the breadth of the state. The name you hear is Uche Nwosu. But for me, against all the speculations that I am leaving APC is not true. All the state and local government executives are intact. We have done everything to resolve the issue but it appears to have gone beyond repair. The situation at hand has gone beyond what we can manage.”

    Ganduje said the first task of the committee had been achieved as it got the assurances of the governor that he would remain in the party and work for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

    He said: “He has done it before and he will do it again.”

    Also, APC governorship candidate, Senator Hope Uzodinma, and his faction of the party, snubbed the peace parley.

    Uche Nwosu, the former Chief of Staff to the Governor and the presumed winner of the October 6 governorship primary, was also absent.

    Hundreds of APC faithful loyal to the governor’s camp attended the meeting.

    Tempers rose at the beginning of the meeting when a clip of the Ahmed Gulak Committee meeting with party’s stakeholders when he cancelled the governorship primary before absconding the following morning to Abuja where he announced Uzodinma as the winner of the primary was shown.

     

     

  • Oshiomhole to intervene in Imo APC crisis

    National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and his National Working Committee (NWC) will intervene in the crisis rocking the party in Imo State.

    It was gathered that the party’s leadership is worried that the crisis may affect the party’s chances, not only in the state, but the entire Southeast.

    Sources said the party’s leadership resolved to invite Uzoma Ezediaro, the lawmaker representing Oguta state constituency, believed to have spearheaded Uche Nwosu’s endorsement, and other members, to explain why they perceive Nwosu as the best governorship candidate in 2019.

    The lawmaker’s action is believed to have led to the factionalisation of the party by the anti-Okorocha elements who have vowed to resist such moves.

    It was gathered that others opposed to the endorsement will also be invited to explain their opposition to ensure a quick resolution of the crisis which is said to be giving party leaders sleepless nights.

    Crisis began in Imo APC when Ezediaro rallied his colleagues to endorse Governor Rochas Okorocha’s Chief of Staff, Uche Nwosu, as the party’s preferred governorship candidate for the 2019 election. But the move was opposed by stakeholders led by Deputy Governor Prince Eze Madumere.

  • Those behind Imo APC crisis, by acting chair

    The Acting  Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State, Mr. Chris Oguoma,  has accused outgoing National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and the APC National Organising Secretary Osita Izunaso of masterminding the crisis rocking the Imo State chapter of the party.

    Oguoma, who is recognised by Governor Rochas Okorocha’s  camp, alleged in an exclusive chat with The Nation that Oyegun and Izunaso  “aided the diversion of sensitive materials meant for the ward, local government and state congresses in connivance with the former Secretary of the APC Convention Committee, Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu”.

    He alleged further that Oyegun, Izunaso and Uwajumogu conspired  to hand over  the party structure to a pressure group within the party, the Coalition Group, which he said does not constitute a tangible percent of the numerical strength of the party , just to settle personal scores with  the state governor.

    Oguoma also alleged that Oyegun defied subsisting court orders and injunctions restraining him and the party leadership from recognising any result that may have emanated from Imo State as no congress was held in the state.

    He said: “Oyegun, Izunaso and Uwajumogu were blinded by personal grouses against the governor that they perpetrated acts that were alien and inimical to the progress of the party. They were responsible for the stealing of the Congress materials and Oyegun personally directed the Congress Committee to ignore the party in the state and handover the sensitive materials to the Coalition group so that they could write the result without any input from the governor, who is the leader of the party in the state.

    “While Oyegun was fighting the governor for opposing his tenure elongation, Izunaso stod against the governor for refusing to support and sponsor his governorship ambition, while Senator Uwajumogu was piqued by Okorocha’s support for another Senatorial aspirant from his Okigwe zone.”

    He went on: “Outside the Court Orders and injunctions served Oyegun and the party leadership, they were also abundant and convincing evidence that no Congress held in Imo State, but Oyegun and his co-conspirators, refused to do the right thing but those actions to us the members of the party in the state are of no consequence. I remain the authentic state Chairman of the party until the Congresses are held.

    “You can see that we are not distracted by what Oyegun did because we know that he acted illegally. We are still in the party secretariat carrying out our functions, especially with regards to the coming Local Government elections. We are not aware of any other APC office in the state, outside this one that I am heading.”

     

     

  • Imo APC crisis: Okorocha meets Buhari again

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met behind closed doors with Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo and former Edo governor, Adams Oshiomhole, in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Reports have it that Okorocha’s meeting with the president, which lasted for about an hour, came few days after he met the president in his country home, Daura, Katsina State.

    The governor had complaint about the conduct of the ward congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in his Imo state.

    Okorocha, who was again accompanied by Oshiomhole, declined comment on the outcome of his meeting with the president.

    NAN, however, gathered that Okorocha might have again lodged a fresh complaint about the way and manner the ward and local government APC congresses were conducted in Imo.

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    It would be recalled that Okorocha had on May 7 in Daura told newsmen after a closed door meeting with Buhari that there was no ward congress in Imo.

    He said: “We expect internal democracy and internal democracy is the way to go. Those kind of funny politics that were played must stop, where people went to carry ballot boxes, steal results looks so primitive.

    “I intimated Mr President and we will make sure that such things must stop.’’

    Okorocha and his supporters also boycotted the local government APC congress and insisted that a fresh date for ward congress should be fixed before the local government congress.

    The governor, while addressing his loyalists, announced that there would be no local government congress in the state until the crisis of the ward congress was rectified.

    The state APC Chairman, Mr Hillari Eke, however, told our reporter in Owerri on May 14, that the ward and local government congresses were concluded successfully in the state.

    Recalls that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had last two weeks attempted to reconcile the governor with the rival faction of the APC in Imo.