Emeka Etiaba Dumps Apga By Okey Maduforo Correspondent,

Emeka Etiaba dumps APGA
By Okey Maduforo Correspondent, Awka

The political landscape of Anambra State, ahead of 2010 gubernatorial election, witnessed a jolt on Friday when Emeka Etiaba, gubernatorial aspirant of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), announced his decision to leave the party.


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Etiaba told reporters in Awka that he was yet to decide the political party he would join, but noted that there was no going back in his ambition to become the next governor of Anambra.

The lawyer further hinted that the leader of APGA, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, might equally dump the party. He said the elder statesman was aware and in support of his movement out of the party.

His words: "You were all here the day I declared publicly to run for this election, and you remember what Ojukwu said about Emeka Etiaba. He said: wherever you go, I will go. Any time I look at my right or left or at my back, I see him.

"He is not a man that wastes words; so today, I assure you that when I decided to quit, I did have his consent to quit and if you look at the letter I gave to you, I addressed him as my leader. I never said APGA leader or chairman of Board of Trustees. So his support is not in doubt and in time to come I believe that people will know."

According to Etiaba's letter to Chief Victor Umeh, and copied APGA bigwigs, the barrister gave his reasons for leaving the party, which include "unsubstantiated accusations from the hierarchy of the party that I am in the governorship race to finally negotiate a deputy governorship position with a given candidate while destroying our party in the process, total lockout from the state, local government and ward party offices and machineries, as well as threat of sanction against party members and officials that cooperate with my campaign organisation".

Other reasons he gave include "refusal of the state executive to grant audience to my campaign organisation, total rejection of our gifts to them on the said occasion and your refusal to act on my petition against such undemocratic and un-courteous treatment."

The son of the incumbent deputy governor of the state, added that "public castigation of my candidacy, threat of expulsion from the party, if I continued with my governorship campaign activities" pushed him out of the party.

Etiaba, however, emphasised in the letter that: "As I leave our party to continue with my governorship aspiration elsewhere with a view to taking Anambra State to the next level, I say thank you and wish that you extend my love to members of the National Working Committee and the entire members of the party."