Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has said his Imo State counterpart, Rochas Okorocha, and the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Chief Victor Umeh, are ungrateful to him for sustaining and maintaining APGA.
At a press briefing in Awka on Monday, the Chief Press Secretary to Obi, Mr. Mike Udah, said it was unfortunate that Okorocha and Umeh were castigating the Anambra State Governor, accusing him of trying to sell APGA to another party.
Udah said were it not for Obi, APGA would not have been anywhere today.
He said rather than taking APGA away, it was Okorocha and Umeh that had sold APGA to a new party, the All Progressives Congress, which he said would do no good to Anambra people.
Udah said the Anambra governor had no apologies for having a working relationship with the Peoples Democratic Party-run Federal Government of President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said the relationship was for the good of Nigeria and the state in particular, adding that the partnership had yielded many dividends for the state.
Udah said Umeh ought to know that Obi was behind his meteoric rise to the national leadership of APGA, which gave him a platform in the polity.
Umeh, he said, should show gratitude to Obi.
Udah said, “In any relationship, there are always senior partners and junior partners. It is wrong when the junior partner claims that he is a senior partner.”
Debunking Umeh’s claim of standing by Obi all through his political trials, Udah said Umeh was not anywhere near Obi before he became governor.
He said it was Obi that brought Umeh from nowhere to take over as national chairman of APGA when the former National Chairman left.
Udah said, “He was said to be a treasurer of APGA. One other person was the chairman. And somewhere along the line, things fell apart and that chairman ceased to be chairman and Umeh was elevated to be chairman.
“In what organisation have you seen a situation where the chairman is cast overboard and his successor has to be the treasurer. We have so many offices before you get to treasurer. Do you not agree with me that it took the influence of somebody to get that done?
“Somebody was picked from obscurity, he was nursed, was nurtured, fed, dressed up and he came to limelight. Instead of appreciating what I have done for you, you do not feel well to show appreciation to the person who did all these for you.”
Meanwhile, the crisis rocking APGA took a new turn on Monday as Umeh and the party’s former National Secretary, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi, faulted the appointment of Chief Maxi Okwu as its interim chairman.
Umeh and Shinkafi spoke with journalists at a press briefing in Abuja.
They said the party national caucus, which met in Abuja on Saturday and made Okwu the interim chairman, did not have the constitutional powers to make such an appointment.
The caucus meeting also appointed Shinkafi as interim secretary of the party.
Obi is said to be behind the caucus meeting.
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Source: Punch
