Anambra APC to Buni: resolve leadership crisis

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State has urged the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) to reconcile aggrieved leaders of the party ahead of February 26 national convention.

The factional Secretary of the party, Chukwuma Agupugo, made the appeal yesterday in reaction to the just concluded state congress that produced Chief Basil Ejidike as the party’s newly elected chairman.

Besides, the party has been enmeshed in leadership crisis involving the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, and the candidate of the party in the state governorship poll, Sen. Andy Uba.

Addressing reporters in Awka, Agupugo, a lawyer, described the Uba faction congress as illegal, warning that the decisions taken at the convention would be contemptuous of dual court rulings, while the Ejidike-led executive would render the exercise null and void.

He warned that the party’s attendance at the convention with delegates outside the directive of the court would amount to invitation to nullification of the convention.

He said: “I’m not surprised to hear that some people conducted a purported state congress on Sunday, because there has been this desperation by some individuals in the party to concoct what seems like a congress.

“There was no congress in the party on Sunday. There is a subsisting order and ruling by the Court of Appeal filed by Emeka Ibe by the judgment secured by Onyekwere Uzochukwu.

“That order emanated from the Court of Appeal and directed that the status quo should be maintained, where the former chairman, Ibe, was returned as the state chairman of the party.

“That notwithstanding, the order, I believe, was duly served on us and to the national secretariat of the party. I particularly wrote a memo to the secretariat requesting their directive and intervention to that effect, and even till now, none of the reply has come back to the state branch of the party.

“Consequent upon that, I do not believe that the party will be blind to that judgment. Of course, you know that no matter how big or small a court order is, it is meant to be obeyed.

“We also received a court order by some people, about 18 local government chairmen, who went to court, asking the court to grant them relief on the fact that their tenure had not elapsed, and as such, no congresses should be held in Anambra.

“Only on the 25th, we got information that the people who went to court, secured an order and the next day, we received the order, which was also served on the national secretariat.

“The next day, we heard that the purported ward congresses were to go on, and if anybody was to pay a blind eye and deaf ears to this, that person must be a serial court offender.

“What is imminent is that if Anambra produces a list for the national convention, that convention may be null and void because people will go to court.”