The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) has dismissed Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State who was alleged to have defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC) as a political nomad and vowed to move against him as the party would ask the court to remove him from office having dumped APGA.
The party also described the eighteen out of the twenty two state chairmen who allegedly defected also as fake.
The National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi who addressed journalists in Abuja yesterday, said only party chairmen from Kogi, the Niger, Lagos, Cross River, and Taraba had left the party, adding that all the others mentioned in the publication were fake.
“Our attention has been drawn to publications of yesterday that 22 APGA state chairmen have declared for APC. For clarity sake and to put the record straight, only five party state chairmen have defected to APC and other five officers of the party. The others who claimed to state chairmen are fake”, he said.
He regretted that it was unfortunate that Okorocha could pick people from the garage and call them APGA state chairmen. Since he was elected governor he has never attended meetings of the party to be able to recognise the various state chairmen of the party.
Shinkafi explained that the entire southeast zone was regarded as the home base of APGA and the party has so far won elections in the area.
He restated the resolve of APGA to go to court to challenge Okorocha’s continued stay in office as governor. He cited instances where the court had declared legislators seats vacant after their defection to other parties.
“In 2011, people voted APGA not Okorocha in Imo State. Imo State is an APGA state and we are going to show APC and Okorocha that the state belongs to APGA by defeating them in the 2015 general election.
“Governor Okorocha could be described as a political nomad having sworn on election on the platform of APGA after several disappointing outing in other parties, that he would never quit the party.
The same Governor Okorocha could now come out openly to say that APGA is dead in the state”, he said.
On the likely impact of the defection of the five party chairmen, Shinkafi said their exit was rather a blessing to the party since most of them had remained dormant without any significant impact on the fortunes of the party.
“Okorocha is very good friend of mine but since he has gone ahead to do the wrong thing we are going to move against him. APC is dead on arrival in the south east because they will not win even a councillor hip election in the area. If elections are conducted free and fair, APC will not win any election in the whole of the south east”, he added.
Governor Okorocha had during a meeting of the APC on Thursday said that 22 state chairmen of APGA have formally enlisted into APC.
Among the 22 state chairmen and National officers are, Prince Adeshina Olayokun ( Lagos), Assistant National Legal Adciser, Chief Mrs. Olufumilayo Onwubiko , Chief Oby Ezenna ( Assistant National woman Leader South West, Prince Atep Fredrick ( Cross River), Hon. Nuhu Muhammed Umar, (Kogi), Simon Onyema Charma ( Kaduna), Victoria Y. Buba (Woman Leader Kaduna) Musa Balarabe (Yobe).
Others are Mrs. Kelechi Ononiwu ( Assistant Woman South-South), Dr. Tracy Ighor (Taraba), Nwogu Kingsley (Nassarawa), Rabiu Umar ( Sokoto), Wilson Myenguron ( Adamawa), Adamu Dahiru (Katsina), Bashiru Muhammed (Kebbi), Shauibu Kawu (Niger), Muhammed Abubakar (Gombe), Muhammed Lawal (Bornu), A. A. Idris (Kano).
Source: Thisday
