Imo State based Newspaper, Frontline Express has reported that ahead of the June 30th APC congress in Abuja, Governor Okorocha may have launched an onslaught against all APC Party leaders from State to Ward levels who are perceived to be loyal to Sen.Ifeanyi Araraume. According to reports, all Party leaders who had pitched tent with Araraume as a result of the initial position of the Party to elongate the tenure of the existing exco are currently sweating up their sleeves following the recent pronouncement of President Buhari annulling the initial agreement of the Party on tenure extension.
Governor Okorocha who is said to be favored by the current ‘no elongation’ stance of both President Buhari and National Leader Bola Tinubu, according to an inside source, has giving matching orders to the LGA executive bodies to ‘dethrone’ any leader whose allegiance can be traced in any way to Sen.Araraume or whose commitment to the rescue mission agenda is surrounded with doubts. The source disclosed to Frontline Express that “under the current arrangement, unlike what used to be, it will be difficult to have the bulk of Araraume’s men on the delegate list this time around because having been seen as a proponent of tenure elongation which he so heavily celebrated, Araraume is currently being perceived by both President Buhari and National Leader Tinubu as a threat to the Party’s victory in 2019”
Already across the wards, it is learnt that some leaders have already been communicated that they are no longer recognized as leaders of the Party and would consequently not make the delegates list ahead of the June 30th Congress. In Ideato North for example, there abound cases where certain leaders branded as henchmen of Sen.Araraume have been removed from the leadership structure of the Party and left to lament their ordeal before anyone who cares to listen. Same fate is said to have befallen the Party leaders especially in those LG’s where loyalty is said to be inclined towards Araraume.
Governor Okorocha once again gained upper hand over the Party when President Buhari announced last week that the tenure elongation agreed upon at penultimate NEC meeting is illegal and unconstitutional sighting various relevant portions of the APC and Nigeria constitution to back up his claim. Many leaders of the Party who had defected to Araraume on account of the first agreement by NEC to extend the tenure of the current leadership, had to start finding their ways back to Okorocha’s camp in order to secure their relevance in the Party. This newspaper gathered that even those who had taking sides with Deputy Governor Eze Madumere are now making frantic effort to return to Governor Okorocha’s camp or risk being ‘ostracized’ from the Party.
Meanwhile, the Destiny group led by Sen. Araraume is already crying foul over what it describes as ‘unlawful intimidation’ of its members. A member of Exco of the group speaking on condition of anonymity described as ‘undemocratic’ the alleged matching order by Governor Okorocha that Party leaders loyal to Araraume be ostracized. He warned that this will breed disunity and anarchy in the Party.
