National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh has warned President Jonathan and his PDP to steer clear of Anambra State as the party is ready to fight to protect the mandate which the people gave to Mr. Peter Obi in the last election.

Umeh, who addressed a press conference in Enugu, Monday against the backdrop of attempt by the PDP to take over the entire South-eastern states, also warned that any attempt to claim Anambra would amount to an attempt on former Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu whichwould not be tolerated.

The APGA chairman, who was particularly concerned with the utterances credited to President Jonathan over the weekend in Abia State where Governor T.A Orji defected to the PDP, that Anambra State would be next, warned that the people would resist such an intimidation.

He urged Dr. Jonathan not to dissipate energy trying to annex the South-east but to first of all solve the problems in his own home front if he wanted to run for presidency in the 2011 general elections.
Said he: “That is a wishful thinking; Jonathan should learn from Obasanjo, who in his brute dictatorship could not conquer Anambra State under the control of APGA. So for him to begin to imagine that the state will join the PDP so soon is a very wrong calculation on his part. One is that Mr. Peter Obi who is governor of Anambra State today is holding a sacred mandate of the people given to APGA, Governor Obi, and principally, to Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu.

“If you go through the longest road running through Awka today you will still see Ojukwu’s billboards with Obi, ‘this is my last wish’ vote for him. Our people voted for APGA, Ojukwu in the main and then Peter Obi as an instrument. So it’s not something anybody can stay somewhere and think he can takeover. All the things Obasanjo did to destroy APGA failed due to our resistance; he even admonished the Igbo to stop following Ojukwu’s party. So this time around, the last thing Goodluck can achieve is taking over Anambra State, he cannot do that. Governor Obi on his own cannot join the PDP with this mandate he has now; that mandate is the most sacred mandate in Nigeria; it is the only one, anybody can safely say that was given by the people.

“From what we have read in recent times it is obvious that his own backyard is leaking, so if he is serious about bidding for the presidency he should go back home to patch-up his backyard instead of being desperate to annex the whole of Igbo land. It is not the way to get the support of Igbo people by intimidation and force; it has not worked for anybody in the past and it will not work this time around.

On T.A Oji’s defection, Umeh said the Abia governor “is confused and we shall look for a man of valour who will fly our flag for the governorship election in Abia State.He has a personal right to join any political party but in doing that is expected to be very firm and decisive.

“On his invitation, Ojukwu went to receive him in Umuahia alongside the governor of Anambra on July 2; that he can within so short a time make a u-turn, he has in-advertently slighted Dim Chukwuma Odimegwu Ojukwu who we hold in very high esteem in Igbo land by telling the people that he had to join the PDP on the directive of President Jonathan. What he simply exhibited is lack of courage. And portrayed Igbo as slaves in Nigeria and I want to say that Igbo are not slaves and we can never be slaves; nobody can take Igbo by force the way Governor Orji made it to look. By abandoning Ojukwu and pitching his tent with Jonathan the way he presented it, what it shows is that he doesn’t have the courage to stand on anything Igbo.”

On Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo’s assertion that APGA was a village party, the APGA boss challenged his PDP colleague to name the parties those prominent Abia leaders belonged to at their time. “Dr. M.I Okpara who was the premier of the Eastern Region and the greatest Igbo man from Abia State was a member of the NCNC; Okwesilieze Nwodo’s father served M.I Okpara in the government of NCNC.
So if NCNC cannot be described as a village party but was able to impact in the lives of the people of Eastern Region, the people who made it happen then never belonged to an amorphous party like PDP; it could be said that Nwodo lost his head when he couldn’t remember historical records.

The PDP which Nwodo is leading is an amorphous party and it doesn’t represent anything in Nigeria.”
Also Reacting to recent endorsement of presidential aspirants in the zone, Chief Umeh said; “I was with Ojukwu in Dallas USA and we monitored all these developments in the internet and we were laughing away because if you look at the endorsements being paraded you will know that Igbo have not endorsed anybody. These endorsements were procured by those being endorsed and in a period of hunger and joblessness in Nigeria people are ready to do anything for money.

“Ojukwu will come back in the next one week from his vacation and when he returns APGA will hold a leadership meeting to review all the shenanigans going on in the Igbo land politically and he will be speaking to our people. And I am sure when he speaks the people will respect him because they know where he is coming from all these people running round the streets are doing that because Ojukwu is not at home. And they are also sending people to Ojukwu to secure his support but one thing is very clear, Ojukwu is not looking for anything in Nigeria today except the uplift of the generality of the people.
APGA as a political party will play the lead in determining who becomes president and anybody looking for support in the South-east must get the nod of APGA.”


http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/aug/31/national-31-08-2010-006.htm

@ Poster . . . . Always try to avoid double posting by reading the day's headlines first.

Here is a link to the first thread:- https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-506221.0.html

apga can hold anambra, but i wonder if they have any credible candidate who can oppose gj, they have tried it several times but it has always been back to square zero