The vice chairman of the All Progressive Grant Alliance (APGA) in Imo State, Chief Cyril Duruaku has given reasons the party refused to accept the state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha back to the party when he made the attempts to return.
Governor Okorocha was reported to have made attempts to return back to APGA (a party that gave him his current mandate as the state governor) through Chief Maxi Okwu’s faction of the party.
The governor was said to have sponsored the Abuja High Court Suite that removed the erstwhile national chairman and secretary of the party, Chief Victor Umeh and Alhaji Sani Shinkafi as well as the current appeal at the Supreme Court so as to enable him safely return to the party.
But, speaking with journalists in his office, the APGA chieftain said he was aware of the serious moves made by the governor to return back to the party, saying the major stakeholders of the party in Imo known as The Ambassadors rejected his return.
The Ambassadors are the group of people known as Agenda who worked for the governor in the past.
According to him, the major reason was that the governor who recognized that political party is just a vehicle that takes one to his destination did not pay any fare with which the vehicle could be maintained to carry others to their destinations.
He said the rejected the governor’s bid to return back to the party because he had shown that he is a rolling stone that gathers no more.
“His intention was to kill the party in Imo. That’s why he left the way he did without one day appreciating what the party did for him. If a party is only a vehicle, it is incumbent on him to pay his fare when he disembarks so that the vehicle can be maintained to carry another person”, he said
He said when the governor’s intention did not materialize he decided to return back to the party
Duruaku however said that the party no longer had factions as according to him, all the factions led by Victor Umeh, Captain Ihegworo and Maxi Okwu were all coming together to forge a common front through the instrumentality of a group known as the Unity Forum.
This he said is because the party cannot go into 2015 elections with factions.
To reclaim the Imo Government House in 2015, the party leader disclosed that the party had made arrangements to embark on local government rallies to draw more support from the rural people who had been expecting them to reach out to them.
On the problem between the two governorship aspirants in the party—Chief Martin Agbaso and Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho—he said it is part of politics that aspirants should be fighting to outwit one another, saying that such politics would not have any negative effect on the party’s chances of winning back the governorship position.
It would be recalled that following the description of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as a Muslim and Boko Haram party by the Igbos and the consequent defection of all reasonable members of the party to either the PDP or APGA, the governor had been making moves to dump the party for one that has better identity.
He has also been reported to have approached the Labour Party for safe landing. This is notwithstanding the recent visit of former governor of Bayelsa State and President Goodluck Jonathan’s political henchman, Deprieye Alamieyesegha to him last week, fueling more speculations that he has made up his mind to quit APC
