From Ihenacho Nwosu and Chidi Nnadi, Enugu
All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders in the South-East yesterday ordered to governors in the zone nursing the ambition to join the ruling party to do so now or forget it.
Imo State governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha said at the South East APC leaders meeting held in Enugu that the party would no longer tolerate continued prevarication by some governors from the zone who had indicated interest in joining the party.
Okorocha last week revealed that three governors in the region had approached him to join the APC, but he did not disclose the identities of the governors nor their party.
Giving reasons for asking the governors to join APC now, Okorocha explained thatâ the APC in the four states of the region not occupied by the party cannot wait for these governors again as they have to fill up party positions towards taking over the states.
Okorocha regretted that Igbo did not play the right politics in 2015, which led to the systematic marginalisation of the region in the formation of the government at the centre.
He expressed optimism that with the entrance of political heavyweights in the region into APC, they would now take over the zone, saying that if former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo and former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani were in APC, Enugu State would have since been in their kitty.
Okorocha said that the South-East must join in the singing of the new song of change like its counterparts in the South-West and the North who are now reaping the benefits of their support to the party, saying that the Igbo got only the labour and science and technology ministries because the South-Eastâ did not do what they were supposed to do.
âWe had nobody with us, we were rejected by all and called Boko Haram, but we were determined to get what is due to our people,â he said.
Explaining why he appointed Senator Ken Nnamani the leader of APC in the South-East at their Owerri meeting, the Imo governor said that he had earlier told Dr Ogbonnaya Onu not to accept ministerial appointment for him to remain at the leadership of the party.
He insisted that they needed a strong voice in the region that the other people would rally round to build the party.
Earlier in his welcome address, the APC National Vice Chairman, South-East, Hon Emma Eneukwu said the party would use the forthcoming Anambra governorship election as a litmus test of their strength in the region, saying that âour journey of taking over the South-East Government Houses must start from Anambra State.â
Eneukwu noted that the Enugu meeting afforded both the new and old members of the party the opportunity of sitting together for the first time to discuss party matters of mutual interest in the zone.
âIt affords us the opportunity of collectively saying welcome on board to the ruling party to our distinguished political heavyweights who have now joined forces with us to enthrone government of change in the South-East,â he said.
Some of the party leaders from the zone who attended the meeting are former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo; former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamaniâ; Science and Technology Minister, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu; Labour Minister, Dr Chris Ngige; Imo Deputy Governor, Chief Eze Madumere; Senators Ifeanyi Ararume, Osita Izunazo, Uche Ekwunuife, Nkechi Nwaogu, Emma Anosike; and Chief George Moghalu.
Others are former Abia Deputy Governor, Chief Chris Akomas; Chief Ezekiel Izuogu; Chief Gbazueagu Nweke Gbazueagu; Chief Agunwa Anakwe; Enugu APC Chairman, Dr Ben Nwoye; former APC guber candidate in Enugu, Chief Okey Ezea; for Enugu House of Assembly Speaker, Chief Eugene Odoh, among others.
Dear Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi NEVER you Join APC because It is anti-Citizen Party.
Remain in PDP but Listen to Voices of the masses.
Ndigbo will never join a party of the same people that conspired to kill our fathers during the pogrom of july to sept10,1966 where we lost over 1m Easterners.These same people regrouped against us in 1967 to 1970 genocide they call civil war where over 4m of our boys,women and children were massacred. As long as buhari who was Battalion commander in that war is the leader of APC and Osibanjo who is in law of Awo who ordered the economic blockade during his visit to port harcourt in 1968 is also the Vee Pee,Ndigbo will remain in the opposition ,continue to seek for self determination.
The West has been in the opposition since 1999 ,they did not die,FG cannot develop any state except they have a visionary Governor,we must remain in APGA/PDP axes,let APC remain with the muslim hausas and their yoruba surrogates.
I wholeheartedly concour with you. Yorubas had been in opposition in Nigeria politics. Yet we cannot say we are more developed than them infrastructurewise. Late Dr. Sam Onunaka Mbakwe was not in NPN, he didn’t join NPN to leave a legacy of massive development of old Imo state. What can APC really offer to Ndigbo? Nigeria is not and must not be a One party state. Let Yorubas and Hausas go with the loot of their conspiracy. Igbos will not come along!
That is the truth. The Igbo should remain in opposition until the present govern of Buhari abates.
No south east state belong to APC expect the one they stole. The ONLY south east governor that will sell his consense and people’s mandate are the criminals afraid of EFCC
Those who have joined the APC are desirous of more loot, power mongers who cannot afford to be out of the mainstream, selfish lovers of self inflicted with an extreme case of narcissism. They have no integrity. They believe in nothing. They should not be allowed to mix with visionaries like Dr. Onu and PMB who assiduously pursued their beliefs and commitment to a successful end. They represent nobody but their greed. They have sold out for envisioned mess of potage. SHAME!
The Igbos are at cross roads. They supported Jonathan but he could not transform the region and he lost out in 2015. Therefore there must be a way forward, and if joining APC is the best way lets go ahead.
Mr. Jerusalem, if only you can see and know the way others see your lower classes and your forceful impositions, probably you will have learnt to respect other neighbours. Christianity seems to becompletely absent in that coment. Please relax.
Mr. Jerusalem, if only you can see and know the way others see your lower classes and your forceful impositions, probably you will have learned to respect other neighbours. Christianity seems to be completely absent in that coments. Please relax.
party built by hard labored effort can succeed in long term, i believed hard work paid off well,keep trying
Good your performance at the forth coming Anambra Election will make you retrace your steps back to where you are coming from
Okorocha, you must leave the Igbos alone. We know that you are indirectly a muslim-Hausa man, working for the north in Igbo Land. This is what people have not understood. To islamize the Igbos or Nigeria will be the most difficult thing to do. It can never happen. Please, leave the Igbos alone. God will give them a deliverer.
APC, one-term-party!
Rochas you are a woeful failure,and a disgrace to Imo people
All these people defecting from one party to the other are just seeking political relevance and personal aggrandizement, which will fetch them nothing in this buhari’s administration, but total relegation.
I have 2 disagreements witt the above caption. The first is that i find is most difficult why your highly esteemed paper should couch the the re[port as APC ……. instead of what Okorocha said.. The second is why Okorohausa should use such insulting directive words on Governors of Igbo states. What FG project has he brought to IMO since he defected to the APC? and how is APC FG performing?
I have 2 disagreements witt the above caption. The first is that i find is most difficult to understand why your highly esteemed paper should couch the the report as APC âŚâŚ. instead of what Okorocha said.. The second is why Okorohausa should use such insulting directive on Governors of Igbo states. What FG project has he attracted to IMO since he defected to the APC? and how is APC FG performing?
How much is Imo State better than any of the States in Igboland? Only that people need to travel to Awka, Onitsha, Enugu, etc., to see the difference.
It is stupid for anyone to contemplate, suggest or pressurize Ndigo to joining this bunch of APC gangs. The so-called Igbo political leaders never at anytime care to find out from their people what they really want. These political jobbers presume that they have superior knowledge and as such know what is best for the people, even without consulting the people. They will meet their Waterloo at the elections. Perhaps they are relying on their rigging tricks. It will not work this time. Even Gov Rochas who likes to boast of everything, winning governorship elections in his state has always been the proverbial camel passing through the eye of a needle. What is in APC self? Igbos must maintain a dignified opposition in Nigeria, rather than join APC. Nonsense! Let all the spent force, Jim Nwobodo & the likes join, no qualms!
Just check the names of people listed in that meeting. They are like “akwukwo ukpaka” (bunch of leaves) which cannot wrap even a ball of akara (bean cake). Some of them stole generator from national stadium. Others betray their fellow brothers during early days of PDP. Some abandon English & Igbo to speak Hausa, just to show the Hausa oligarchy that they are capable of selling his brothers like Judas. God will not allow them succeed.
Why are you Deleting my Comments?