Primaries: APGA to compensate losers with NASS, party offices – Chairman

• Says everybody mustn’t be Anambra Governor same time

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has said that everybody cannot be Governor of Anambra State at the same time, urging those who lost the primary election of the party to cooperate, as the party has concluded plans to compensate them with party responsibilities, National Assembly positions in future.

The National Chairman of the party, Victor Ike Oye, who stated this yesteryear at the party headquarters while briefing journàlists to counter the report that a new National Working Committee (NWC) has emerged after he, and other key stakeholders of the party, were allegedly suspended.

Fielding questions from journàlists, Oye said “We are looking at APGA beyond 2021, so we are to build a political party that will stand the test of time, and the report of the screening by the Committee was fair and just. We did not look into anybody’s face.

“As soon as the report was produced by the committee, we published it as it came. We call on all those people who feel aggrieved to remain patient, and stay in the party. Out of nine aspirants, only one person will emerge, the remaining ones must fall by the wayside, then the party will galvanize them, and plan something for them in future.

“Everybody must not become Governor, those who didn’t make it to Governorship today can become senators tomorrow, or if there is another cycle of governorship election tomorrow, they can become Governor. You remember that all these things are not in the hand of man, they are in the hands of God.

“God determines our fate, and that is the truth about it. Everything you see today in life is vanity and chasing the wind, there is no big deal about it. So, let them come together and dialogue with the leadership of the party, we will find a role for them in the party. All these people you are talking about, the party built them, the party made them.

“Some of them are in the House of Representatives, how did they get to the House of Representatives, they were sponsored by the party, some of them are in the State House of Assembly, the party sponsored them. So they have to be patient, if it didn’t work out today, it may work tomorrow. That is all about destiny, you must follow your destiny, because you cannot change your destiny because destiny is irrevocable”, he said.

Speaking on his purported suspension and takeover of the party by a new APGA National Working Committee (NWC) led by Jude Okeke, Oye called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Director General of Department for States Service (DSS) and other security agencies go arrest those who masterminded the alleged suspension, pointing out that it was a national embarrassment of high magnitude.

“The security agencies have a role to play in this situation, if anybody does anything that is illegal or against the law, such a person should be dealt with to serve as a deterrent to other people. That is the proper thing to do. I call on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Director General of DSS to arrest all the people involved in the charade of yesterday.

“That is the only way we can have further confidence in them. They must arrest those people and prosecute them because what they did was a national embarrassment, not only to APGA but to all Nigerians of goodwill. It has to be addressed seriously.

“I am even calling on Mr. President that this is a threat to Nigeria’s democracy, where irresponsible people can wake up from their sleep and gather a few people and go to a national television and pay to embarrass the nation. It has to be handled by Mr. President, that is the call by APGA, and all the security agencies must look into this matter and deal ruthlessly with those people that caused the nation this international embarrassment.

“It is not peculiar to Nigeria, it is all over the world now, people have been calling me from America, Britain, and all over the world to ask what is happening in Nigeria.”