APGA faction explains stance over national leader, inaugurates LG excos

Barely one month after two factional national leaders of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) emerged from two controversial congresses held simultaneously at Owerri, Imo State and Awka, Anambra State on May 30, 2019, a faction of the party in Abia State says it is not in a hurry to identify with any of the two rival camps led by Dr. Victor Oye and Dozie Njoku respectively.

While a faction of the party in Abia State, led by Rev. Augustine Ehiemere, recognised Oye as its national chairman, the other faction with Chief Nkem Okoro as chairman, which is loyal to the party’s 2015 and 2019 gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Alex Otti, explained that it was still studying the circumstances that threw up Oye and Njoku as rival national chairmen.

While speaking with The Guardian shortly after inaugurating his faction’s 17 local government councils’ chairmen in Umuahia, Okoro said his refusal to recognise Oye or Njoku was because the said congresses through which the factional leaders emerged were conducted against a valid court order.

He therefore contended that until the cases pending in court are determined his Abia faction of APGA leadership would not recognise either Oye or Njoku as the party’s national chairman. Okoro had last week inaugurated the state executives of the party and 26 member State Working Committee (SWC), stressing that both were elected in accordance with APGA constitution. 

He informed journalists after the inauguration ceremony held at the State Secretariat at 74 School Road, Umuahia, that his faction took control of the state secretariat vacated for it by the Ehiemere faction.

The factional state chairman added that with the state’s party executives in place at state and LGA levels in addition to a functional SWC, Abia State APGA “is now set to pursue the petition filed by its gubernatorial candidate, Otti, at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to recover his mandate from Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

His words: “Abia APGA is intact, indivisible and purposeful under the leadership of our amiable and dynamic gubernatorial candidate Dr. Alex Otti and other leaders who share the vision of lifting Abia from the doldrums of backwardness and bad governance to the pedestal of good governance and redemptive leadership.”

Chairman of Aba North chapter, Ike Anumba, who spoke on behalf of other newly inaugurated LG chairmen, commended the party faithful for electing and finding them worthy of the offices, assuring that they would not disappoint but work for the success of the party.