•President, Ojukwu, Obi in evil romance –Okorie •Why APGA has no presidential candidate –Umeh*
– By Ajibola Abayomi (Lagos), Daniel Kanu (Lagos) Felix Uka (Abakaliki) and Uche Nwosu (Imo) –
All is not well within the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), as the only governor of the party, Peter Obi of Anambra State who currently chairs the South East Governors’ Forum, is supporting the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Jonathan belongs to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Obi, recently endorsed a communiqué signed by all the South East governors pledging a bloc vote for the President during the April general elections.
While the governor is throwing his weight behind Jonathan, National Chairman of the party, Victor Umeh, is said to be favorably disposed towards the candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu.
Already, the development is generating a cold war between the governor and the APGA boss.
In another development, some National Executive Committee (NEC) members of the party who would not want their names in print are not comfortable with either of the options.
They fear that the romance of the party particularly with Jonathan, the presidential flag bearer of PDP may be counter productive as APGA intends to win more states during the generation elections.
A source within the party said the development is pitching supporters of the party against one another in the South East.
Commenting further, the source said, “from the way things are going, there is every likelihood that the leadership of the party under Umeh is up to a game. Our fear is that the party’s machinery being mostly bankrolled by Governor Obi is already swimming with PDP. I think if care is not taken, what happened to Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 2003 may repeat itself with APGA, when the AD, because of its refusal to field a presidential candidate and its support for (former President Olusegun) Obansajo, caused the party to lose five of the six states in the South West to PDP.”
Reacting, founding chairman of APGA, Chekwas Okorie, described the ongoing political alignment between Obi and Jonathan as “unholy alliance and evil marriage” aimed at destroying the party in the South East”.
In an interview with Saturday Independent, the embattled APGA chieftain frowned at the decision of the governor to work for Jonathan during the election.
“Frankly speaking, there is nothing wrong with personal relationship between the duo of Obi and Jonathan but by dragging a faction of APGA into it, they are trying to kill the party. We are not going to allow that because we are ready to rescue the soul of the party from them”.
He flayed Jonathan on the appointment of the wife of Odumegwu Ojukwu, a strong supporter of APGA, Bianca Onoh-Ojukwu, as Special Adviser on Diaspora Matters describing it as a Greek gift.
However, contrary to speculations that the party may have entered into alliance with the PDP to support its presidential flag bearer, Jonathan, for the April election, Umeh said there was no such arrangement yet.
The APGA boss disclosed in an exclusive chat with Saturday Independent that the real reason why the party will not be fielding presidential candidate was because no aspirant picked the party’s presidential form during the specified period.
“APGA will not field presidential candidate at the forthcoming April poll. And the reason is simple. Nobody came forward to pick the presidential form when it was advertised just like the other positions. January 15 was the deadline for submission of names of presidential candidates as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). It is over”.
