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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor-Kalu, has appealed to the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, to be wary of the governors from the opposition party promising to deliver 25 per cent vote for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in next year’s presidential election.
He made the appeal during the official screening of the aspirants for this weekend’s national convention of the ruling party.
The Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District, who moved the motion for the party’s chairman to take a bow and go, also charged him to consider members of the party ahead of the friends of the party.
He said: “The party needed a level heads national chairman, the party needs a builder like you which I have seen since you assumed office and how you have solved the problems in the states.””One appeal I want to make to you is don’t be carried away by the governors of the states under the opposition parties promising to give Mr President 25 per cent during next year’s presidential election. We need the 100 per cent vote delivery.
“It’s either that you are a member of our party or you are not. We are not going to listen to anybody telling you that he is a friend to Mr President. If anybody is on ground and loves Mr. President, he should join this party,” he charged.
Defending his motion for him to bow and go, the Senator noted: “You have a repository of knowledge in conducting elections having contested as governorship candidate, been an Electoral Commissioner and an erudite Professor. I am also impressed with your humility. You are a very disciplined man. I just want to commend and urge you to keep flying the flag of our party until we conquer.”
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“I heard some people complaining that the country is sliding into a one party state, and if anybody wants to claim that we will tell them that we didn’t force anybody to join the APC. They are doing that out of their own volition and we cannot stop anybody because the door of the party is wide open for anybody desiring to join to do so. I want you to work very hard to get more people into the party because human beings are the raw material of politics,” he appealed.
In his response, the national chairman of the ruling party said that; “I am happy that the APC is the only party with presence across the six geopolitical zones in terms of the governors, membership, winning elections. If you look at the by-elections we have conducted, we won in all the six geopolitical zones, a feat no political party has done. Other parties dominated a particular zone while the APC has presence in all the zones.
“We have won in Kano, Zaria, Adamawa, South West, South South, and South East confirming that APC is dominant in all the zones. That is the beauty that APC comes with and for us, it is time to consolidate in everything we are doing.
“And even the congresses we have conducted so far, we have the least of legal issues because most of the complaints have been settled through arbitrations instead of going through court processes. The fact that our members can subject themselves to arbitration without going to court is a plus for us at both national and sub-national.
“It shows that APC is a party of system and the members believe in the system we have. I want to thank Nigerians for believing in the party. They should look forward to expansion on what we are doing to ensure that the party wins.
“Let me also assure you that we don’t believe in the friends of the party because friendship is different from membership. There are obligations that the party has for the members not for friends of the party,” he assured.
