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Tag: APGA

  • PDP rep, another from APGA dump party for APC

    PDP rep, another from APGA dump party for APC

    Two members of the House of Representatives made public on Tuesday their decision to defect to the ruling party, All Progressives congress.

    The duo of Aliyu Datti Yau from Kano State (Peoples Democratic Party) and Shiddi Usman Danjuma (All Progressives Grand Alliance ) from Taraba State both defected the All Progressives Congress.

    Speaking at the plenary, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, read their letters of defection to members on the floor.

    The Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu; and Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu, separately raised points of order to fault the defections.

    Both Elumelu and Okechukwu argued that the reason cited by the lawmakers for their defections, which was that there were crises and divisions in their former parties, was untrue and invalid.

    Gbajabiamila, however, dismissed the protests by the opposition leaders.

    He noted that Yau’s defection made all the 24 members from Kano to be in APC.

  • Rep. Hembe defects from APGA to APC

    Rep. Hembe defects from APGA to APC

    Rep. Herman Hembe, representing Konshisha/Vandeikya Federal Constituency in Benue has defected from All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Hembe announced his defection at Tuesday’s plenary, declining to state reasons for his action.

    Reacting, Rep. Ndudi Elumelu, Minority Leader of the House said that Hembe’s defection was unconstitutional.

    Elumelu said that there was no crisis in APGA to warrant the lawmaker’s defection, adding that his action was not in the best interest of democracy in Nigeria.

    According to him, leaving APGA for APC without crisis in APGA is a breach of the Constitution.

    Contributing, Rep. Solomon Bob (PDP-Rivers) said that frequent defection of lawmakers from one political party to another was not healthy for Nigerian democracy.

    He urged lawmakers to always abide by the rules guiding defections from one party to another, adding that the movement of members to other parties should be discouraged.

    Speaking, the Deputy Speaker, Mr Ahmed Wase who presided over the plenary, disagreed with Elumelu, saying that APGA might be facing internal crisis which were unknown to Nigerians.

    “The fact that you are not aware of crisis in APGA does not mean there is no crisis in the party,” he said.

  • BREAKING: House of Reps member announces defection to APC

    BREAKING: House of Reps member announces defection to APC

    A member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Rep. Herman Hembe, has defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    His defection was announced by the Deputy Speaker, Rep. Ahmed Idris Wase, at the start of plenary on Tuesday.

    Idris-Wase presided over the session in the absence of the Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, who is at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the APC.

    Hembe, a former Chairman, House Committee on Federal Capital Territory in the 8th Assembly, represents Konshisha/Vandeikya Federal Constituency of Benue State.

    He had also previously chaired the House Committee on Capital Market in the 7th Assembly.

    Hembe had also chaired committees in the past that probed the collapse of the Nigerian Capital Market and the Abuja Centenary City project, respectively.

    A former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member, the Benue Rep. was once a member of APC before he joined APGA.

  • Ex-APGA guber candidate in Abia, Otti joins APC

    Ex-APGA guber candidate in Abia, Otti joins APC

    Dr Alex Otti, former governoship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia in 2015 and 2019 elections has declared for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Otti, who made his declaration on Friday at his Ehi na Uguru Ward 5, in Isialangwa South Local Government Area, promised to keep fighting to salvage the state from the grips of endless bad governance.

    Otti said he was joining APC for the good of his people, saying “we must always put the people first.”

    He said that his decision to leave his former party, APGA, was not an easy one, neither was it one that he made overnight.

    According to him, it was a decision made based on my unshakable belief that it is for the good of my beloved state and people of Abia.

    Otti said that he was joining APC alongside about 450,000 members of APGA, who were loyal to him.

    He decried the level of insecurity, decayed infrastructure, unemployment, unpaid salaries and pensions, endemic poverty among others as some of the challenges crippling the state.

    Otti expressed dismay that the state now occupied a very low position in the ranking of states in the Human Development Index because of bad leadership.

    He said, “I have, therefore, chosen to keep on fighting in order to liberate our people and make them achieve their full potential as human beings and rightful citizens of Nigeria and the World.

    “As our people say, if you embark on a journey, you must be walking until you get to your destination.

    “We have not arrived yet, so we keep walking. We are a great people and we know it. It is our destiny.

    “It is the great task of our lives.We must lead our people to the promised land.”

    Otti, a former Managing Director of the defunct Diamond Bank Plc, pledged to use his vast experience and contacts in the finance and management industry to attract massive investments to industrialise the state.

    Earlier, Mr Nnamdi Francis the Ward 5 Chairman of APC, while presenting Otti to the party, described him as a ‘big fish’, who would help to repostion the party in the state.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Otti was later welcomed at the party’s state secretariat in Umuahia, by the APC stakeholders.

    Chief Donatus Nwamkpa, the state Chairman of APC, while welcoming Otti said there was no discrimination in the party.

    “We have always longed to have you in our midst because our mission is to rescue Abia,” he said.

    Nwamkpa however, said that APC had no automatic ticket for anybody.

    He told Otti that every member of the party was important, while assuring him that he would not suffer any form of discrimination in the party.

  • Anambra 2021: PDP, APGA, APC excos, 300 members tear membership cards, decamp to Labour Party

    Anambra 2021: PDP, APGA, APC excos, 300 members tear membership cards, decamp to Labour Party

    The newly rejuvenated and repackaged Labour Party (LP) in Anambra state has continued its stride in routing the other key political parties in the state, including the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) and the All Progressives Congress(APC) ahead the fast approaching 2021 Anambra governorship election.

    In a consultative gathering yesterday jointly hosted by the LP’s deputy Chairman in the state, Chief Itego Modozie and Awka South council’s Ward 8 of the party led by the Woman Leader, Mrs Margaret Okorare, key state, council and Ward leadership of the APGA, PDP and APC in Anambra publicly denounced their membership of their former parties. They then tore their membership cards as a sign that their move was permanent.

    The significantly colourful event which was at the instance of the Awka South council, Ward 8 chapter saw Chief Modozie and other leaders of the party warmly receive the decampees to the Labour Party(LP) and instantly gave them the party’s membership cards and other paraphernalia that accord them full rights and membership of LP.

    Modozie who also used the opportunity to unveil the identity of the party’s proposed governorship candidate in the 2021 election, Grp Capt Nnamdi Benson Nnoruka (rtd)from Anambra South senatorial zone. He told them that he personally shifted his political support from APGA to LP because key campaign promises made to the state and his Awka South Council area in particular had been jettisoned. These, he listed to include roads, erosion control, employment, youth/women empowerment, industrialization, urban renewal/development, community/industrial peace among others.

    He admitted that Gov Wille Obiano is a good man with a heart to uplift Anambra state but was unfortunately surrounded by seeming conscienceless self-serving money mongers who are currently raping the finances of the state.

    “I have benefited from his administration, but I want more citizens to benefit too, to be carried along. After all they are the ones who toiled to install the government, before all these strange faces came from nowhere to high jack the appointments, projects and contracts.

    “Many citizens are complaining but the aides are blocking the governor from seeing, hearing or listening to the concerns and challenges being faced by the people. More so, some communities has no single appointee while some have more than fifty. Most key innovative programs have been left in ruins and abandoned to become eyesore.

    “That is why Nnoruka, a distinguished career Airforce officer and administrator, a lawyer of repute and a man deep rooted in fairness has stepped forward to bring the necessary changes and transformation in the state.

    “We can see how his presence in the party has continued to attract high caliber politicians, top retired military officers who had previously watched with baited breath the shoddy situation go on. We have resolved to work tirelessly daily to collapse the entire structures of APGA, PDP, APC and YPP into he Labour Party to enable us achieve the task ahead…”, he added.

    Looking literally forlorn and distraught, the incoming members most of who took turns to address the gathering described Nnoruka as gentlemen that had through the instrumentality of the defunct Anambra Peoples Forum(APF) and in concert with other concerned statesmen/women fought to save and salvage the state from an army of buccaneers during the era of Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju as governor.

    While publicly disposing and tearing their membership of their former parties vowed to stand firm with Nnoruka, Chief Modozie and others to restore the state to the part of moral financial rectitude, fair/balanced spread of appointments and general development.

  • APGA suspends governorship flagbearer over alleged anti-party activities

    The Abia State Working Committee of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has slammed an indefinite suspension on the Governorship Candidate of the party in 2015 and 2019, Dr. Alex Otti.
    The suspension was announced in a statement jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the party, Rev. Augustine Ehiemere and Sunday Onukwubiri, and made available to newsmen in Umuahia on Monday.
    The party accused Otti of engaging in anti-poverty activities, saying that he equipped his political machinery, known as Abia First, to harass party officials and create divisions in the party.
    It also accused Otti of indulging in illegal and unconstitutional activities as well as acts of insubordination to the party leadership, which “undermined the principle of party supremacy”.
    It stated that the governorship candidate proceeded to the election tribunal after the 2019 poll “in the name of APGA without the consent and approval of the party.”
    The party further alleged that Otti sponsored attacks on the party’s state and national leaderships in both the social and traditional print and electronic media.
    It stated: “Otti’s Abia First was set up and equipped for the sole purpose of using it to display political force, harass party officers and create divisions in the party.
    “It is also for the promotion of his selfish and personal political objectives against the interest of the party.
    “Otti is hereby suspended indefinitely from the party with immediate effect, pending the hearing and determination of his case by a disciplinary committee to be set up by the party in the state.”
    The party urged the public and institutions to take note of the suspension “and desist forthwith from having any dealings with Otti in any capacity as APGA member or representive in any capacity in Abia or elsewhere.”
    The party also announced the expulsion of Chief Nkem Okoro, the Chairman of a faction of the party loyal to Otti, for alleged anti-party activities and breach of the party’s constitution.
    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the party copied the National Working Committee of the party, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies in the statement.
    In a swift reaction, Mr Ebere Uzoukwa, the Publicity Secretary of Otti’s faction of the party, dismissed the suspension as a nullity.
    Uzuokwa said that Ehiemere and Onukwubiri lacked the legal power to suspend or expel any member of the party, having been allegedly replaced by Okoro-led executive that emerged during the party’s state congress in June.

  • APGA elects new National Chairman

    The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on Friday elected Mr Edozie Njoku, as its National Chairman.

    Njoku was elected at the party’s convention held in Owerri and attended by delegates from each of the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.

    Njoku, first National Vice Chairman (South) of the party, who hails from Ibeku, in Aboh Mbaise Council Area of Imo, would be leading the party for the next 4 years.

    The new chairman addressed a teeming crowd of party members shortly after his election.

    He noted that the convention and his election came as a result of the nullification of the outcome of the meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party held on April 14 in Awka, Anambra, by a court of competent jurisdiction.

    “I will take all necessary steps to reconcile all aggrieved members and rebuild our party.

    “If we must support any politician, it will be a collective decision and not a one man show.

    “All we want is for democracy to reign in our party. We should desist from unwarranted criticism and put heads together to rebuild APGA,” he said.

    The APGA chieftain castigated Chief Victor Oye and his team for allegedly plunging the party into what he called avoidable crisis through chains of anti-party activities.

    “We need to apologise to all those who were misled and shortchanged before and during the last general elections because we are prepared to heal the wounds.

    “APGA is our party. We collectively resolved and agreed that the post of the National Chairman must leave Anambra for another state.

    “With a sincere spirit of team work, we shall rebuild our party. I must consistently keep on protecting the interest of APGA and nobody can push us out of this party,” he said.

  • Anambra guber: Prepare for war in 2021, APC tells APGA, PDP

    Anambra guber: Prepare for war in 2021, APC tells APGA, PDP

    The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Anambra State, has called on the All progressives Grand Alliance APGA and the People’s Democratic Party PDP, to prepare for war in the next governorship election in the state in 2021

    The party leaders in a unanimous decision Friday at the Milatel Hotels in Awka, vowed that what happened in the past during elections in Anambra State, will never repeat itself again.

    It was during the presidential victory get together of the party, organized by the Buhari Youth Organisation, led by its Coordinator in the state, Hon Olisa Okamelu.

    Speaker after speaker including the former Commissioner for information, Chief Charles Amilo, South East Youth leader of APC, Hon Olisaemeka Onyeka and party leaders from Imo and Enugu states, spoke in the same vein.

    The State Acting party Chairman of APC, Chief Basil Ejidike, said the target of the party was 2021 governorship, adding that it would be the time for APC to stamp it’s authority in Anambra.

    He apologized to party members for the party not living to its billing during the previous elections, nothing that the time to get it right would be in 2021 election in the state.

    According to Ejidike “it will not be a problem again for us because we have identified some of the problems that held us back in the past”

    “Our coming political summit in May in Anambra will usher in a new dawn. So, the ruling party in the State and others should be ready to face APC because it’s now or never”

    The state Coordinator of BYO (Buhari Youth Organisation) Hon Osita Okamelu, said with the leadership of the party under Ejidike, who he described as a political bulldozer, that APC was as good as winning in 2021

    However, he agreed with other speakers like Okelo Madukaife, the party’s publicity secretary, Chief Amilo, Onyeka and others that there was an improvement during the presidential election unlike what happened before now.

    For Olisaemeka Onyeka, the Southeast Youth leader of APC, there was need to review the proposed zoning formula in the party.

    He said the party should give the Southeast either the Deputy Senate president or Deputy Speaker of the House of representatives, since the other positions had been shared, adding that the office of the Secretary to the government of the federation SGF was just an appointment.

  • Breaking: Atiku floors Buhari in Obi’s LGA

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won the presidential election in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra, where Mr Peter Obi, the party’s vice presidential candidate hails from.

    PDP polled 30,655 out of the vote cast while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) got 1,922 and the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 1,055.

    Prof. Christopher Ihueze, INEC Collation Officer for the Presidential Election in Anaocha, announced the result on Sunday at Neni, the headquarters of the local government.

    Ihueze said the exercise was generally peaceful in the area as there was no report of violence.

    Mr. Chris Chikwelu, PDP agent for Anaocha told NAN that the party was impressed with the turnout of voters in the area.

    “We are happy that our people came in large numbers to vote for our son and Atiku Abubakar.

    “We are very hopeful and prayerful that result of Anaocha will be a reflection of the results in other parts of the country,’’ he said

    The agent of APGA and APC declined to react when they were approached.

     

  • 2019: Reject car gifts from politicians, APGA tells traditional rulers

    The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Ogbaru Local Government Area, Anambra, has called on the traditional rulers in the area to reject car gifts from politicians.

    Mr Arinze Awogu, Campaign Coordinator of the party in the council, made the call while addressing a political group, Ogbaru 16-OVA-16 Facilitators, in his Atani office on Saturday.

    Awogu condemned the alleged attempt by some politicians in the area to bribe traditional rulers with car gifts instead of giving account of their stewardships or their manifestoes.

    He said that gifts from elected public officers could not be unconnected with the resources meant for the development of the area.

    He warned that accepting such gifts would leave the traditional institution open to disrepute and ridicule.

    “A political party here has started vote-buying, this has been raised to a crescendo with the attempt to bamboozle the traditional rulers with car gifts.

    “The attempt by a candidate to hoodwink the revered traditional rulers in the area into joining the list of fingered beneficiaries of the diverted funds meant for constituency projects in the constituency is most despicable.

    “The source of such gifts cannot be removed from the commonwealth of the constituency, it cannot be said to be clean because it is part of the funds meant to be used in executing projects that are for public good.

    “The public odium of being closely associated with proceeds of diverted public funds is indelible, it is our view as a party that the traditional rulers should roundly reject the Trojan Horse,” he said.

    Awogu lauded Movement for Outright Discontinuation of the Exploitation and Annihilation of Ogbaru People (MODEAOP), a rights group working to ensure that every public officer in Ogbaru is held accountable.

    He promised to support the group activities towards ensuring that the people of Ogbaru get the best from their elected political representatives.

    “MODEAOP has initiated a process to expose the conduit pipes through which funds meant for Ogbaru constituency projects in the last four years have been managed.

    Chief Emmanuel Emezina, Coordinator of Ogbaru 16-OVA-16, said the people were tired of poor representation and were working assiduously to deliver all APGA candidates in the February elections.

    Emezina said that the group would embark on aggressive issue-based campaign for its candidates.