By Vincent Ujumadu

Anambra State chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Sir Norbert Obi said Wednesday, that the leadership of the party would do everything humanly possible to unite aggrieved members before the forthcoming governorship election in the state.

Speaking at the party’s state secretariat in Awka, Obi added that APGA would always emphasize on peace and not to promote war among its members.

According to him, the issue of the six lawmakers of the State House of Assembly, who recently defected to All Progressives Congress, APC, would soon be resolved amicably.

Obi said: “Recall that on the 1st day of September, 2021, we woke up to the news that six members of the Anambra State House of Assembly who are members of APGA had decamped to APC. Anambrarians received it with mixed feelings and reactions and tongues have been wagging since then.

“It is therefore important that the party leadership at the state level makes a statement on the vexed issue. Granted the fact that defections may not be too bad if properly done based on ideological differences and variations, the party is at a loss as to why these Honourable members who rode on the back of the party to victory at the House of Assembly elections in 2019 should take such a drastic decision without any reference to the party, both at the state and the national levels.

“There is no political party in Nigeria today that does not have internal wrangling and differences, especially in Anambra State where a governorship election is scheduled for the 6th day of November, 2021.

“It is a known fact that some issues arose out of the party’s primaries, but the governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano did not waste time in constituting a peace/reconciliation and national outreach committee headed by no less personality than distinguished Senator Victor Umeh, a former national chairman of APGA.

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“The committee, without wasting time, swung into action and has been able to sit with many aggrieved members of the party, including the Anambra State House of Assembly members..

“It is therefore disheartening and embarrassing that the Honourable members threw caution to the winds and decided to hurt the party that brought them to limelight.

“We assure them that whatever are their grievances which the peace/reconciliation committee did not address well or to their satisfaction, should be revisited and addressed to their satisfaction.”

According to the chairman, “Every right thinking Igbo man knows that APGA is not only a party, but a movement for the actualization of Igbo agenda in the Nigerian polity and it would amount to shooting oneself in the leg for any Igbo man to pursue the destruction of the party.”

He described the party’s governorship candidate for the November 6 election, Professor Chukwuma Soludo as the proverbial bread fruit whose time has come and who must be.

“We cannot afford to betray the wishes of our founding father, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, who bequeathed the APGA to Ndigbo. We cannot afford to throw away the baby with the bath water.

“You must come back to the family so that together we can fight for our rights in the Nigerian nation as Igbo”, Obi said.

Vanguard News Nigeria