A chieftain of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia state, Barr. Prince Ukaegbu has said he warned the then National Chairman of the party, Chief Victor Umeh that fielding Dr. Alex Otti and Dr. Eme Uche Eme as APGA’s governorship and deputy governorship running candidate, will not work in the state.
Reacting to the Supreme Court judgment which affirmed Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as the governor of the state, Ukaegbu who is a factional chairman of the party in the state, blamed Umeh for the party’s loss, stressing that he has been vindicated by his stand that Otti’s candidacy was defective and won’t sell in Abia.
According to him, “I warned Chief Victor Umeh, but he wouldn’t listen. He continued behaving like a bull in a china shop. How could Alex Otti have won when he just defected from PDP and was imposed on APGA by Victor Umeh, sidelining the original members of the party in the state? Victor Umeh turned the nomination process of our party into one huge bazaar and a money making venture. How could Alex Otti and his running mate have won when they were chosen by Victor Umeh from the same Arochukwu/ Ohafia federal constituency without considering the interest of other sections of the state?
“Alex Otti hails from Arochukwu while his running mate is also from Arochukwu, but married to an Ohafia man. The question is will Abia people accept such a divisive ticket? The answer is no. I warned Chief Victor Umeh that the ticket cannot fly in Abia, and he refused to listen. Have I not been vindicated? I have no doubt Victor Umeh would be regretting now because his mistakes killed the chances of APGA. The Supreme Court affirmed the rejection by Abia people of the narrow minded and divisive agenda of Alex Otti’s ticket. It would have been a great injustice to the people of the state had the Supreme Court declared Alex Otti, as the governor of the state.”
Ukaegbu who was the face of APGA in the state before the intra party crisis which hit the party before the election, described Ikpeazu’s triumph at the Supreme Court as an enthronement of equity, fairness and unity in the state
247ureports.com gathered that that Ukaegbu and his faction had before the April 11, 2015 governorship poll, declared support for the PDP candidate, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu.
He dismissed reports by the Alex Otti faction that he declared support for the PDP candidate to spite Umeh.
“Few weeks to the Abia state governorship election, we sat down and analyzed the situation and discovered that PDP had two governorship candidates; one in PDP, Okezie Ikpeazu and another in APGA, Alex Otti. Alex Otti was a stranger in APGA. As at the time he was imposed on us, he was not a member of APGA. So, what we did was to support the best candidate in the circumstances. We settled for Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu who had a better programme and human face over Alex Otti’s deceit.”
