Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha, Thursday, gave a damming verdict on the post primary election crisis rocking the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), stating that the situation is irreconcilable.
Okorocha told the Kano State governor Abdullahi Ganduje led APC Reconciliation Committee that everything has been done to resolve the issues but to no avail, heightening the fears that the party may not come out of the post primary election crisis that has engulfed it before the general election.
Okorocha in his opening remarks at the meeting held at the Imo International Convention Centre (IICC), said that he honoured the meeting because of his relationship with the Chairman of the Committee (Ganduje) and former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
According to him, “there shouldn’t have been crisis in the party because of the affinity of the members, we are like one big family. When we came in 2011 it was a miracle, the who is who in Imo politics were against us but we won that election. We moved from APGA to APC because of the name of President Muhammadu Buhari which is synonymous withintegrity. I am a foundation member of the APC. I suggested the name APC.
“When we started, we were called names, we were made to look like aliens in our state, this is the only state you have elected office holders that are of the APC extration. Those Oshiomole gave the tickets were not APC members, the worst political injustice in the history of Nogeria happened in Imo”.
He added that, “the only reason these people are here is because of Buhari, not because they have benefitted. The issue we have is with Adams Oshiomole, he stole the mandate of the people and gave it away for reasons best known to him. The people here are concerned because the name of the person on APC ticket is not the candidate of their choice.
“Let me make bold to say that this not about the people here but across the breadth of the state, the name you here is Uche Nwosu. But to me against all the speculations that I am leaving APC is not true, all the State and Local Government Executive is intact. We have done everything to resolve the issue but it appears to have gone beyond repair. The situation at hand has gone beyond what we can manage”.
Chairman of the Committee, Ganduje, however said that the first task of the Committee has been achieved as they have gotten the assurances of the Imo governor that he will remain in the party and will work for the reelection of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, stating that, “he has done it before and he will do it again”.
Meanwhile the APC governorship candidate, Senator Hope Uzodinma and his faction of the party, snubbed the peace parley.
Also absent was the former Chief of Staff to the Imo State Governor and the winner of the October 6 governorship election, Uche Nwosu.
However hundreds of APC faithful loyal to the governor’s camp attended the meeting.
Tempers rose at the beginning of the meeting when a clip of the Ahmed Gulak Committee meeting with party’s stakeholders when he cancelled the governorship primary before absconding the following morning to Abuja where he announced Uzodinma as the winner of the primary election.
-THE NATION-
