APGA South South Stakeholders Meet, Insist On 4 Posts, Questions NWC’s Bullying Tactics
The Oasis Reporters
April 28, 2019
The South South stakeholders of the All Progressives Grand Alliance met recently at Agbor in Delta State and issued a 9 point communique on what they feel the National Executive of the largely Igbo centric party must do to gain countrywide acceptability.
In the communique signed by Charles Ogah, Dr. Mic Adams II and High Chief Ogonetu Okponetu, insisting that the four substantive national positions allotted to the zone on inception of the registration of this party in 2002 “as a core foundational social contract commitment of alliance to the APGA PROJECT”, they demand that it be resolved and effected by NEC before the National convention.
The South South stakeholders equally railed against what they termed an “alien monetization of all APGA activities nationwide”.
In addition, they call for the holding of “all NEC meetings in the Party secretariat at Abuja, rather than the practice of making Anambra the unofficial but defacto headquarters of the party.
The stakeholders also note and condemn the seeming “power scheming” ongoing in the party.
“We call on the National leadership to respect the policy of zoning as enshrined in Article 18, of APGA CONSTITUTION, 2014 as amended, and the various sections of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria, as captured and enshrined in the Federal character sections. Any breaches of the party constitution and the 1999 constitution”.
Furthermore, they endorse secret balloting which they term, the standard practice the world over. “We understand some state chairmen are already working on a directive to compile and shortlist names for the upcoming congresses. Such undemocratic activities” must be checked, they demand.
Before concluding their communique, the South south stakeholders called on the National Leadership of the Party ( BoT, NEC, NWC, National Caucus) to immediately convene an emergency NEC with a view to looking into all vexed issues capable of heating up the polity, and create rancorous acrimony.
“Top of this issue is the position and zoning of the office of the National Chairman. The people of South south categorically says ‘no’ in its strong terms, “to the continuous occupation of Anambra to the seat of National chairman for 14 uninterrupted years”.
In conclusion, they called on “the entire APGA to be committed to the growth and development of the party. We cannot at this junction be thrown into another long period of court litigations, capable of drawing us 20 years backward, either through unwarranted greed of power scheming, and aggrandizement.”
APGA as a political party in Nigeria, governs only one State, Anambra, since the Imo State wing of the party, through Governor Rochas Okorocha merged the faction with Muhammadu Buhari’s CPC and Ahmed Tinubu’s ACN to form the All Progressives Party, APC that is currently Nigeria’s ruling party.
However, the Imo State gubernatorial election was lost by the ruling party to the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP. As from May 29, 2019, the new governor would be Emeka Ihedioha.