Obiano won’t get APGA ticket for re-election, says Okorie
http://www.gatewaymail.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Willie-Obiano...Anambra-State-Governor..jpgBy Maureen Edozie (Enugu)
NIGERIA: THE hope of Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, to seek re-election on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) may not come to fruition going by the message coming from the highest hierarchy of the party.
The former Chairman of APGA, Chief Chekwas Okorie, has said that Obiana would not be given the ticket in next year’s governorship election.
Okorie stated this when members of APGA, led by factional acting chairman, Chief Chris Ejike Uche, visited him for a re-union in Enugu.
The founder of APGA said Obiano would not be blamed for what forced him out of APGA, but will pay the price of benefitting from it.
He said: “Peter Obi has come back to me; those in my village saw him at my mothers’ burial, but he came to me privately to say, ‘I am sorry.’ And as far as I am concerned that was enough.”
“Sadiq Masari came here and said I am sorry, as far as I am concerned, that was enough. Many here were not there when it happened. Obiano was not there when it happened, but he is an inheritor of that gang up,” Okorie explained.
He further said: “Obiano will not return as a second term governor. It’s not his fault, I have nothing against him, but he is an inheritor of evil.
“UPP is the only and truly progressive party today. UPP with APGA that I see here today will bring about true federation; will bring about resource control; will bring about fiscal federalism; will bring about state police.
“The party that is moving on from today will reduce to the barest minimum the exclusive legislative list and return to the federating units their powers and that is the only way Nigeria will progress.”
He also said: “Every ethnic nationality in Nigeria will have a sense of belonging. We don’t advocate for disintegration of Nigeria, but we advocate for a true Nigeria that will be music to the ears of every Nigerian.
“The journey has begun. It does not matter where I end up in the process, it does not matter whether I fly the flag. What matters to me is that an average Nigerian will remember all of us here today. History is being made and all of us here are disciples of the new Nigeria. The future is bright.”
“APGA and UPP must find a way to unite to give Nigerians a truly progressive party,” he declared, adding: “This has taken a long time to come to where we are today. A lot of negotiations, a lot of interactions, a lot of assurances has taken place.”
“It was deliberate that we allowed the leadership of APGA from its acting national chairman down to the people you have listened to representing all the geo-political zones who belong to APGA to speak you.”
Okorie added: “As I respond on behalf of UPP nationwide, to assure you that a true progressive political movement has begun, it was with heavy heart that we let go of APGA.”
In their various speeches, the acting National Chairman of APGA, Chief Chris Ejike Uche, Deputy National Chairman, Alhaji Masari Sadiq, Chairman of APGA chairmen, Dr. Isa Jega, Chief Sunday Obasahon, from the South-South, among others, expressed regrets for betraying Okorie in APGA.
