As the Abia State governor turns the beautiful bride for political parties, his estranged party, the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) came to literally beg him to return to the fold at the weekend.

A delegation of the party, led by Iboko Imo Iboko, the board of trustees’ chairman, apologised to Governor Theodore Orji for the treatment meted out to him by the party’s former chairman, Larry Esin, which Mr. Iboko claimed did not reflect the party’s perception of him as the Abia State governor.

“We are principally in the state to apologise, to say ‘sorry’ for what the outgone chairman did,” Mr. Iboko said.

“We are asking you to come back to the party. Please come back, but if you cannot come now, know that we are there for you. If anything happens to you along the line, fall back to PPA,” he said.

Rather than accept the apology of his estranged party, Mr. Orji charged the new leadership to join him in his new party and see the light of liberation.

The delegation, which visited the Government House, Umuahia, the state capital, after the PDP delegation made a similar visit to the governor, included the national chairman, Chris Anele.

No internal democracy

Mr. Orji added that it was regrettable that a party that won two states after the election was now without any, because of the lack of internal democracy, adding “I don’t know where the former chairman, Larry Esin was brought from; that’s why he behaved the way he did. A party I built and sustained was run like a family business,” he said.

He said he was shamefully treated by the party’s former leadership, stressing that even when he had the humility to ask for time to answer the query issued to him by the national executive the next day, “I was given conditions. No one can take that; I am gone for good.”

The governor asked the PPA leadership to join him because it would be difficult to contest election on PPA’s platform, either in the state or in other parts of the country, adding that the development has made Abia people politically aware and conscious.

“Their eyes are now open, they want to thrust their future in the hands of a political party that is democratic, that can be trusted. If I am not a performing governor, other political parties would not come to me. I challenge PPA to publish my reply to their query. They published their query to me. I have nobody in the party at all levels,” he said, adding that he was ordered to mend fences with his deputy, who he said wanted to take over from him, without caring to know what the problem was.

The new national chairman, Chris Anele, who disclosed that the visit was the first assignment of the new executives, said the way the former leadership of the party handled the matter was regrettable, and appealed to Mr. Orji to return to the party.

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