APGA National Chairman Victor Umeh Fires Former Governor Peter Obi, Faults Obi On Why He Resigned

National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) , Chief Victor Umeh has faulted the reasons the former Governor of Anambra state , Mr Peter Obi and the immediate past Chairman of the Party’s Board of Trustees (BOT) and Leader of the Party gave for resigning from his position ,saying hew was being economical with the truth reports odogwuemekaodogwu.com. 

He also picked holes with the four defecting Federal lawmakers of the party led by Hon (Mrs) Uche Ekwunife who recently defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as inconsequential stressing that their action was premeditated  and a fall out of a conspiracy theory hatched by former Governor Obi who brought them into the party in the first place to destabilize it.

On Thursday last week, Obi had tendered his resignation letter as Chairman of the party’s BOT and its leader because the positions having not been ratified by a convention of the party never existed .

Although , he resigned but said he remained a bona-fide member of APGA, though ordinarily his Assistant on Media , Mr Valentine Obienyem had in a post resignation statement said his principal resigned just as the four federal lawmakers defected because the party was being run as a one man show.

But Umeh while addressing journalists yesterday flanked by the party’s state Chairman , Chief Mike Kwentoh and other members of the state executive of the party shortly after a thanksgiving mass by the state Governor, Chief Willie Obiano at the Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church Aguleri said Obi was been economical with the truth and a pathologically insincere.

According to him, after the party hierarchy at the national level resolved to appoint Obi on December  10, 2012 the leader and Chairman of its BOT following the demise of its leader , Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the decision was communicated to him and a meeting scheduled for February 14, 2013. On the 18^th of the same month the appointment by the party’s National working committee (NWC)  he said was approved.

Later , a constitution review committee in which Obi’s sepcial Adviser on legal matters was made the secretary he said was raised to work towards a convention of the party during which the ratification of the former Governor’s appointment would take place .

‘’The review committee did its job and produced a report which we made available to Obi on February 15, 2014. I handed him the estimates for the convention .

‘’When the constitution committee did its report , we asked him to fix a date and he declined . I suggested March 8, 2014 for the convention and he  said  that on that day he would be reading his stewardship report to Anambra people.

‘’I told him that we could have the convention on a Wednesday , which would have given us two days to the day he would read his report but he didn’t heed it. He didn’t make money available before he left but rather said that his successor , Chief Willy Obiano could as well handle the convention,’’ he said.

But Umeh said that before then , the party had suffered a set back through a High Court judgment of February 8,2013 which was quashed on June 18 of that year by the Court of Appeal.

He said that it became necessary to make the clarifications because there was a misleading slant to Obi’s reasons for resigning his position as the party’s BOT Chairman and Leader , adding that his insincerity on the matter is one sickness that needed a cure.

He said that they made efforts to have a convention to ratify his appointment but because Obi believed then that the High Court Judgment against him as the National Chairman of the party had sent him packing ; coupled with the fact that he was nursing a ministerial ambition and knew according to section 21 of the APGA constitution that one can not hold a party position and a position in government at the same time.

The knowledge of this coupled with his desire to be minister and work for Jonathan’s re-election made him dilly dial on releasing money for the party’s convention.

‘’From my story , you can now see that we made efforts to have a convention to ratify his appointment . He believed I had gone gone by February 8. It is unfair , that he is now maligning the leadership of the party which made him what his is today.  Now that he has pursued other things unsuccessfully , it is most uncharitable and unfair to turn around to say his appointment was not ratified ‘’, he said, adding that he got Obi’s letter of resignation on Thursday last week but backdated August 1.

He said that Obi had been appointed the Coordinator of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) for South-East zone while Uche Ekwunife has been appointed to Co-ordinate Anambra state by the TAN’s Founder , Dr Ifeanyi Ubah.

On the defecting lawmakers , he said that the processes of their defection started when Obi thought that he would be made a Minister and secretly wooed them in secret meetings, stating that one of the law makers told him in confidence.

‘’It is wrong to say many members of the party left because one man appropriated it . It is unfortunate .

Former Governor Obi said it is worrisome and APGA needs to have a rethink. Obi engineered this carpet crossing . One of them who cross carpeted , Hon Victor Ogene came to apologize to me for embarrassing the party.

He said Obi asked him to carpet cross to PDP , yet he turned round to say the party is collapsing. Ekwunife is running away because of her sins in the party . They are talking of automatic ticket when their tenure is yet to finish ,’’ he said. 

He said that the party will continue to support President Jonathan’s second term ambition but that this time there had to be an alliance or accord where the party would be told what to benefit from the accord the way NPP/NPN accord in second republic produced Chief Edwin Ezeoke as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.