The contender for the Imo APGA Governorship ticket for the 2015 election Mr Okey Ezeh has reacted to newspaper publications credited to the INEC Resident Electoral Commission that he is not the governorship candidate of the Party. In a press release made available to Trumpeta, the governorship hopeful maintained that what the REC reportedly said was not new since the legal department of the Commission has already explained why they recognized Ihenacho as the candidate of the party pending any judicial pronouncement that says otherwise.
According to the youthful politician “of course he is the party’s temporary candidate because we have a matter in court which outcome will determine the authentic party candidate. One thing I want Imo people to understand is that this is not about Okey Ezeh vs Ihenancho, it is about the constitution of APGA. It is about democratic principles: It is about respect to the rule of law and respect for the laws of the land. It is about internal democracy within political parties.
If they do it to Okey Ezeh today and get away with it, they will do it to another person tomorrow but if Okey Ezeh fights back and reclaims his mandate like we doing now, they will think twice before doing it to another person tomorrow. Ihenacho should understand that his children can benefit from the battle I’m fighting today because they could be victims of tyranny tomorrow.
He said that no form of falsehood or propaganda can stop or dissuade him from the struggle to reclaim his mandate since the APGA constitution is very clear on how the party candidates should emerge pointing out that the only reason INEC did not recognize him was because the law does not allow the Commission to accept candidate lists form state party chairmen but ones there is a judicial intervention, the commission as a responsible neutral umpire that has a history of obeying court judgments will comply accordingly.
Okey Ezeh averred that anybody who tells Imo people that the matter in court does not affect Ihenacho’s candidature is peddling falsehood since one of the prayers of the litigants is for the court to nullify whatever the so-called caretaker committee has done which he said include the primary election that produced Ihenacho since the caretaker committee is storage to the APGA constitution.
He lamented the crisis that has engulfed a big brand like APGA in many states attributing it to the result of one man s greed.
According to him “what is happening in APGA is very unfortunate and painful to me. This is a party that was founded on the ideals of brotherliness, equity, love, and equal opportunities for all but what the National Chairman does is that he makes a deal with one Aspirant, announces the dissolution of a validly elected states exco of the party and sets-up an illegal caretaker committee to be nominated by the “annointed” Aspirant and then believes every other person can go to hell. That is why you can hardly hear the names of other National Officers of the Party unlike what obtains in other parties where other officers are allowed to perform their functions”.
He maintained that the time has come to prove to the world that APGA is an institution with a constitution guiding its operations and not a one man show. The Mbaise – born former Banker described as sad journalism, a report in an Owerri – based newspaper that he was being haunted by security agencies wondering where the authors of such false report got their story since the heads of the relevant security agencies he got in touch denied the report stating that his lawyers are looking into the report since the author and his sponsors tried to paint him as a fugitive. He urged Imo people to take the report for what it is -FALSEHOOD
