The All Progressive Congress (APC) views the statement credited to APGA Ambassadors to the which seeks to revise the events around the return of rehabilitated destitute of Anambra State origin from Lagos State as a set of garnished lies served in broken plates by the government of Anambra State in proxy.’
‘The moment those human cargoes were off-loaded at Upper Iweka, a human rights group got wind of it and alerted us’ the report claimed
From the above APGA Ambassadors and by extension Anambra State government does not even accord the returnee citizens of Anambra State any respect because human beings cannot be described as cargoes. Therefore their pretext to the protection of their dignity is fundamentally flawed.
Secondly, APGA Ambassadors, hence Anambra State Government, failed to name the human rights body that got wind of this and informed them. There is not human rights body that will be averse to being accorded credit in the circumstance.
The truth is that no human rights body contacted APGA Ambassadors, but the government of Anambra State, which deliberately failed to keep an appointment to take custody of the returnees, chose to arrive at their own time, to make their pre-determined propaganda lines plausible.
It is our understanding that APGA Ambassadors is not a standing force, that can readily assemble their membership and arrive at 6.15am, but a government with an advanced information can arrive at that time.
Again APGA Ambassadors did not state who confirmed the number of returnees from Lagos as 72, but went ahead to state that they met only 20. So what are the names of the 20 they met, and what did they do with them thereafter? Perhaps their briefing from government they are masquerading for failed to foresee those gaping holes. Their own names should have been the only base document to challenge or contradict the names supplied by Lagos State. Therefore the fact that the so-called APGA Ambassadors did not state the names confirms that we are dealing with well-packaged fabrications from a government driven by a fractured political party that cannot be trusted with power anymore.
‘’ The group said it was wrong for APC to drag the name of the governor into the saga, remarking that Obi himself, who is worried over the leakage of the letter to the press, had come out to say that he had the greatest respect for governor, Babatunde Fashola, and had also called him on phone over the matter.’’ Continued the report.
It must be stated in clear terms that APC did not drag the name of Governor Obi into the matter. Governor Obi launched himself head-long into the matter by causing a letter which has up till now not been sent to the president to be sent to online media by his propagandists who run Anambra State from cyberspace without a commensurate progress on the ground.
The letter did not ‘leak to the media’ ,but was planted by Governor Obi and the Secretary to the State Government Mr Henry Oseloka Obaze, who followed up with a vile article entitled ‘Whither Lagos State’s Hubris,Brigabdage and Scofflaw Methods’ equally published din the same media as Obi’s letter.
It is instructive that both the ‘open letter to the president’ and Obaze’s article contain one consistent claim–that Lagos State government did not contact Anambra State Government, which has proved to be a falsehoo, unbecoming of the higher echelon of governance.
We note that the latest after-thought by APGA government through APGA Ambassadors is a clever ploy to bye-pass the two parallel executives of APGA in Anambra State and overreach the Average Nigerian with a revision of recent history, rather than offer apologies where obviously the APGA government in the state failed to care for the citizens of the state, like other state, having been notified of their plight in April 2013.
Even the claim that Lagos State did not furnish the names falls flat in the face of widely distributed documents which have since gone viral, and courtesy of which every Anambra State citizen is aware of the names of those involved and their towns.
It is our considered view that focusing at this point on wrongly-spelt names, towns and local governments in Anambra State is not only immaterial, but and four months late, since they had all the time since April to address these issues.
As a party we note that APGA is a disappointing failure in human care,the major essence of government, because what Ndi Anambra and Nigerians should have been told at this point by this government in place of self-righteousness to enable them re-settle in Anambra State ,or return to Lagos State ,armed with adequate skills for gainful employment.
We seize this moment to caution the APGA-controlled state government that setting its own house on fire by sponsoring false reports on the purported death of one of the returnees is an ill-wind that would blow no one any good. Rather the party should quickly return to whatever governance they can offer in the short time between now and March 2014,because  stoking controversies around their failure to care for their people cannot be a productive pastime.
We assure Anambra State that the failure of APGA State government, which could not evacuate the state NYSC members from Bauchi when riots broke there is in 2011; failed to cater for the interest of traders in Ladipo Market Lagos; when their market was closed and failed to secure justice for murdered citizens of Anambra State in the wake of mass killing s in Mubi nothwisthstading, APC presents a hope for a caring government from March next year.
Once again we seize this moment to condemn the demolition of any scene of crime ahead of complete investigation and prosecution as exemplified by the recent demolition of Upper Class Hotel, Onitsha while investigation into the discovery of human skulls is on-going.
Apart from the justice of the matter, and the necessity to avoid impunity, every hotel in the state is a going concern that employs Anambra State citizens and the demolition or closure, except as it affects investigation is like destroying jobs that the Peter Obi Government has not been able to create.
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ALL PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS
Okelo Madukaife
For: State Publicity Secretary
