The All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA) Abia State, says its 2019 governorship candidate, Dr. Alex Otti, is not suspended from the party and accused the State government of being behind the crisis in the party to frustrate Otti’s suit at the election petition tribunal.
Describing the purported suspension as a joke taken too far, State Chairman of the Dr. Alex Otti faction of APGA, Chief Nkem Okoro, in a statement signed by the party’s publicity secretary, Ebere Uzoukwa, , described Rev. Augustine Ehiemere and Sunday Onukwubiri as PDP agents who do not belong to the APGA executive and lack powers to suspend Dr. Otti from the party.
But in a swift reaction, Abia State Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, said the state government has no hand in the crisis in APGA and described the situation in the party as the case of bad work men quarreling with their tools. He explained that the State government is optimistic about victory in the tribunal as Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu was elected by the Abia electorate.
According to the APGA statement, “It is a public knowledge that Ehiemere, Onukwubiri and a few dissidents from our party regrouped shortly after the 2019 general elections and shamelessly aligned with the PDP and Government of Abia State to frustrate Dr. Alex Otti’s petition at the Abia State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia.
“They suddenly offered themselves as willing tools and surrendered to the whims of our oppressors and enemies of the state to destabilize APGA. To further equip and energize these APGA/PDP political jobbers in this ill-fated and futile project, the PDP led government just recently engaged one Ukpai Ukairo, a PDP member as Ehiemere’s lawyer to ambush the tribunal for the purpose of striking out APGA as the second petitioner in the case filed by Dr. Alex Otti,OFR challenging the sham called 2019 Governorship election in Abia.
“These unmasked political jobbers pay-rolled and funded by the Abia State to destabilize Abia APGA and derail the wheel of Justice at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The statement added that the new APGA leadership under Hon. Nkem Okoro urged APGA members and Nigerians to ignore the purported suspension of its 2019 governorship candidate.
