Umeh Speaks on How He failed to make Peace in ojukwu’s family, says APGA has no apology for adopting Jonathan for second term

           

National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh have said he has no apology for APGA adopting President Jonathan for second term and that no amount of provocation from Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu, the wife of his mentor and leader, late Chukwuemeka Ojukwu would make him take it hot on her.

Umeh who gave this clarification in Enugu on Tuesday during the 2014 Forum of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Enugu State Council also gave a vivid account of how he had consistently made effort to ensure that peace reigned in Ojukwu’s family but instead what he got in return was bashing and hatred.

Said he, “I have refrained from joining issues with Bianca over the years because she happens to be the wife of my late leader.

It is unfortunate that she has continued to make unguarded statements against me.

“If not for anything I think am older than her so she should know what to say and what not to say.

“I had never expected them to be happy that I survived their intrigues, particularly when all blackmail against me failed. For example in her interviews she said that anything the former APGA Chairman was accused of that led to his ouster that I had done it hundred times over.

“But I know I have never involved myself in anything that will be inimical to the growth of the party by aligning myself with external influence to run the party down.

“I remain the person who has held APGA together till date ensuring that the party is still moving on with a surviving governor in Anambra State.

“Through my efforts with my colleagues we have kept the party alive and I think it was a statement she made carelessly and very unfortunate.

“I have re-published the advertorial placed by late Chief Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu in very immortal words of his firm and robust endorsement of my character.

“The only thing I will say is such things have been said in the past and I will not be distracted, but the privileged position of being Ojukwu’s wife should be respected”.

While explaining that he had never taken sides in the dispute over the late APGA leaders’ estate, the APGA national chairman said, “I have sued for peace in Ojukwu’s family without wanting to take sides with anybody.

“For whatever reason I do not think it will be right to consign Ojukwu’s first son to obscurity in the affairs of his father.

“My trying to ensure that Emeka was given his right of place in his family has further angered them against me.
“I am against all the litigations in the family of my late leader and I remain unapologetic on my insistence that in Ojukwu’s home there must be peace”.

“Nigerians”, he went on, “will attest to the fact that I have fought for the party and ready to lay down my life at any stage in trying to protect the rights of this party particularly during elections.

“I was almost killed in Imo State when I was fighting to protect Okorocha’s mandate and no single individual can scuttle the strength of APGA in Igbo land”, he added.
…. says no apology for APGA adopting President Jonathan for second term.

He also use the occasion to debunk insinuations that APGA was an appendage of the PDP, saying “for you to say that APGA is an appendage of the PDP is an insult on me”.

“Our party has chosen to do things differently on the basis that the way we align with the government will be moderated by the way government sees our people.

“We want to use the platform to provide relief to our people that have been oppressed in the Nigerian project, while making efforts to take over government anywhere we can.

“And in making our decision to support the President, we looked at the dynamism of politics in Nigeria and the position of our people.

“We have been hampered by successive governments and believe that the only way is to follow an initiative that will redress the wrongs our people have suffered”, he further added.