Fresh details have emerged why Senator Ifeanyi Araraume decided to leave the All Progressive Congress, APC for the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA.
Aside the loss of the party structure and the positive disposition of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the APC towards the Okorocha backed State Executives, this newspaper learnt that a fresh invitation extended to the Daniel Nwafor led State Executives to attend today’s APC NEC meeting in Abuja may have burst the bubble for the Senator.
The invitation was not extended to the Hilary Eke led State Exco, a product of the Coalition which Araraume was a staunch member. The non invitation may have fueled suspicions that the Oshiomole led NWC may have foreclosed any plan to work with the Coalition in the State.
Also the insistence of Governor Rochas Okorocha to produce the State Executives of the party in the State and foreclose any harmonization plot as proposed by Senator Hope Uzodinma was another major threat to the Senator’s 2019 governorship ambition.
Reliable sources said the disposition of APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole to work with APC State Governors in a bid to ensure President Buhari’s re- election in 2019 may have shut out the Senator from the political chess game and created a cloud of uncertainty on his governorship ambition under the APC.
However, an air of uncertainty pervades the entire Imo APC Coalition with the Senator’s exit from the party.
This newspaper observed that some chieftains of the Coalition namely impeached Deputy Governor of Imo State, Prince Eze Madumere, Senator Osita Izunaso, TOE Ekechi, Sir Jude Ejiogu and others may have resolved not to join Araraume to APGA and watch the outcome of NEC meeting in Abuja before making their next political moves.
A source close to one of the leaders of the Coalition who spoke on anonymity said the move by the Senator to APGA is a personal one. He said the Senator is yet to make his reported defection official.
“We read it on the newspapers and we have not been duly communicated or informed. It is the Senator’s personal decision that he is pulling out from the Coalition and heading to APGA with his Destiny Organization”
“This does not mean we the entire Coalition of Imo APC have dumped the party” he said. Araraume’s Destiny Organization is the major group that has left the Coalition at the moment. Before his reported defection, he was among the frontline governorship aspirants in the APC and a major pillar of the Coalition.
