The leadership crisis engulfing the All Progressives Grand Alliance took a new turn on Thursday when APGA National Chairman Sly Ezeokenwa warned the party’s founding chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, to steer clear of Anambra State Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo.
Okorie had threatened to sanction the former Central Bank of Nigeria governor on Wednesday over his refusal to recognise and align with the party’s factional chairman, Edozie Njoku.
While insisting that they had repeatedly extended an olive branch to Soludo, Okorie expressed concerns that the governor’s actions have consistently undermined APGA’s values, leaving them with no choice but to activate the party’s disciplinary measures for anti-party activities.
However, the Ezeokenwa-led faction of the party, loyal to Soludo, countered these claims, alleging that the true motive of Okorie and his supporters was to extort the governor.
Addressing the press in Abuja on Thursday, Ezeokenwa explained that Okorie and his ‘co-travellers’ had long ceased to be members of APGA since 2007.
He said, “As far as we are concerned, we are aware of the antics of these individuals. They believe that because APGA is in power in Anambra, they can blackmail Governor Professor Charles Soludo into immediately parting with state funds. It is on record that Soludo is an economist, not someone who will succumb to unnecessary shenanigans or gimmicks.
“He is not someone who will divert anything into private pockets. And that is their only issue. It is important that we begin to inform Nigerians about the real motives of these enemies of APGA. Their interest is simply to bury the party.
“It is on record that Chekwas Okorie was expelled from APGA around 2004/2005 when he tried to frustrate the case of the then-governorship candidate of the party, Peter Obi, who later, by God’s grace, went on to become governor elected on the APGA platform. He tried to challenge his expulsion up to the Supreme Court, but the apex court affirmed it. So, at what point did he return to the party?
“Furthermore, it is on record that, after that, he (Okorie) went on to form another political party, which he ultimately liquidated. Today, the same political party has been deregistered, and he feels that the only way to gain relevance is to start laying claim once again to the leadership of APGA.”
Ezeokenwa also raised concerns that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) might have taken sides with the Njoku-led faction to undermine the party ahead of the state’s next election.
According to him, there has never been a time when the court recognised Njoku as APGA chairman.
“Njoku is an imposter and INEC has recognised him as chairman. We have consistently pleaded with INEC to provide us with the court order that recognised Njoku as the national chairman of APGA as claimed.
“The same group of people who claimed that the Supreme Court affirmed them as leaders of the party did everything possible to prevent us from filing our case. But thank God the Court of Appeal has now decided that we have grounds to appeal. The court granted us leave to appeal. Their argument is that we cannot be denied the right to appeal since it concerns leadership.
“As a political party, we are hopeful that the judiciary will do the right thing and uphold the rule of law. Njoku is not a member of APGA. He left the party of his own accord in 2007. We need to start telling Nigerians the truth about the situation,” he stated.
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