By Emeka Mamah

ENUGU—The All Progressives Congress, APC, in the South East zone has said it was making elaborate plans to receive some Igbo political big wigs who joined recently joined the party, saying that it would no longer wait for governors who wished to cross over to the party in the zone to do so.

Already, the party has set up a committee to plan the grand reception for some of the defectors including the former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, the former governor of old Anambra State, Senator Jim Nwobodo, the former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, former Speaker of Enugu State House of Assembly, Chief Eugene Odo, Chief Sam Onyishi, a former governorship aspirant in Enugu State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Senator Andy Uba and Chief Ifeanyi Uba among others.

According to a communique issued after a two-day meeting of the Zonal Executive Committee of the party in Enugu and jointly signed by both the Chairman and Publicity Secretary, Chief Emma Eneukwu and Hon. Hycinth Ngwu respectively, the defectors collectively joined the party with over 600,000 of their supporters.

The communique read, “The members of the South East, Zonal Executive Committee, ZEC, of APC met in its Zonal office in Enugu on 11th and 12th  February, 2017 to collate and examine reports on the on-going continuous registration of its members in the zone and also brainstorm on ways to improve the ability of the party to win future elections in the zone.

“At the end of the deliberations, the meeting resolved as follows:

“That the on-going continuous registration exercise in APC South East, which had recorded a huge turnout is very much on track and peaceful.

“That the party has exceeded its projected membership in the zone, and therefore is requesting from the national leadership, for the provision of more materials and extension of the time allotted for the exercise.

“The APC South East welcomes all the prominent Igbo politicians who had recently joined the party with their over 600,000 supporters in the zone, particularly Senator Ken Nnamani (former Senate President), His Excellency Orji Uzor Kalu, Senator Andy Uba, Chief Ifeanyi Uba, Hon. Eugene Odo (former Speaker Enugu State House of Assembly) Chief Sam Onyishi (former PDP governorship aspirant, Enugu State), among others.

“The party advised other prominent politicians from the zone who are still on the fence to cross over to the party as the Igbo are natural progressives.

“A committee has been set up to plan for their grand reception into the party.

“The ZEC members pledged to sustain the growth of the party in the zone and to commit the party to the enthronement of APC led governments in Anambra State this 2017 and in Abia, Ebonyi, and Enugu States come 2019 general elections.

“There is no gain-saying the fact that the political-tide is in APC’s favour in South East. Election is about people and we have quality members in good number.”

“On the recent comments of some governors of South East States on the issue of defection to the party, the ZEC maintained that though the doors of APC are open to all genuine intending members including the governors, the party would not tolerate any attempt by any governor to keep it in suspense.

“The party is battle ready to win all the forth-coming elections in the zone. Our electoral successes are guaranteed by the people, irrespective of whether any sitting governor joins APC or not.

“The party advised our people to shun politics of hate, bitterness and division, since politics is all about people working in a mutual inclusiveness in an atmosphere devoid of bigotry.

“We commend the effort