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APGA CRISIS: Okorie wants
to be Buhari�s VP, Umeh alleges
By Chukwudi Achife,
Bureau
Chief,
Enugu
The Leader of the dissident
faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Umeh, has
alleged that the party�s embattled National Chairman, Chekwas Okorie has
entered a pact with the Presidential Candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP)
in the 2003 elections, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) to replace the late
Chuba Okadigbo as his running mate in 2007.
Umeh said at a press briefing
in Enugu on Monday that Okorie constituted a stumbling block to the
realisation of the Igbo presidency project due to his ambition to attain
the Vice Presidency at all costs despite his pro-Igbo postures adding that
he (Okorie) had had the intention for a long time.
He described as �cheap
blackmail and decietful� Okorie,s claims that the presidency had contrived
to push him from the party because of the zoning of its 2007 presidential
ticket to the South East was deceitful, stressing that the APGA chairman
had never supported the emergence of a Nigerian president of Igbo
extraction and had been merely pretending. But Okorie, reacting to the
allegation, denied ever romancing with any
politician for the purpose to
being given a Vice Presidential
slot. �I want to tell you outrightly
that Chekwas Okorie is not going to be anybody�s running mate for
2007. I want to tell you
outright that APGA is not going to merge with any party, not while I am
still
alive. APGA can go into
accord, it can go into alliance, it can go into coalition for the purpose
of forming a progressive government, and this thing can only happen after
the election has come and gone and then we begin to calculate how we
position for the new government,� he declared.
Umeh further said: �Chief Okorie has
Vice Presidential ambition.
He wants to be running mate to Buhari or any other candidate of the
ANPP in 2007 by bringing APGA in alliance. Two weeks ago, he was in the house
of Attahiru Bafarawa, Governor of Sokoto State. Let him tell the whole world what
he went there to do�.
Going further, he said, �It
was Bafarawa who told him to start holding meetings of South East Leaders
Forum in his house, so that they would build a base with which he can come
in as the Vice Presidential candidate when the time comes. He has been
following Buhari to replace the late Okadigbo as his running mate. So, Okorie is a stumbling block to
the Igbo
presidency. I challenge him;
let him deny ever having this romance with Bafarawa and positioning
himself for Vice President under ANPP/APGA merger. So, how can anybody
believe him that it is the allocation of the presidential slot to the
South East that made Obasanjo to sponsor the crisis in APGA. It is
terrible.�
Wondering how President
Obasanjo could be hurt by the zoning of APGA Presidential ticket to the
South East, Umeh who now addresses himself as the Acting Chairman of the
party accused Okorie of making inciting statements to divert public
attention from the main issue adding that the party under his leadership
remained fully committed to Igbo presidency.
�What we are saying is that
Okorie should go so that Igbo leaders and elders of the party can in a
very conducive atmosphere choose a leader who would replace him, and also
choose somebody committed to the realization of the Igbo presidency,� Umeh
added.
Umeh also dismissed as
�absurd� allegations by Okorie that he was a co-signatory to the party�s
cheques with which funds were withdrawn and expended, insisting that
Okorie had remained the sole signatory to the party�s account at the Manny
Bank, Wuse Zone, Abuja, where the bulk of the party�s funds were lodged.
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