APC flays Gov Orji over criticism of Ekwueme

The South-East All Progressives Congress, APC, has taken an exception to the comments credited to the Chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum and Governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji, in a section of the media that the revered elder statesman, one of the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, is out of touch with realities.

According to Osita Okechukwu, APC South-East spokesperson, Orji said in the daily that, “it is unfortunate that Ekwueme has lost touch with the realities of the moment, nothing would stop President Goodluck Jonathan from winning 100 per cent of the South East votes, considering his numerous gestures to the people.

“Jonathan will not share South East votes with anybody, the All Progressives Congress here sounds like Boko Haram and you cannot see any well-meaning Igbo son in the APC.

“Governor Rochas Okorocha knows he has missed the way and Ogbonnaya Onuh cannot even win in his ward, so no other party is recognised here.”

Okechukwu noted that Dr. Ekwueme’s sin was his innocent comment that, “PDP as it is today was not the PDP we founded in 1998; that is the truth, I won’t hide it from anybody. It is not the PDP I risked my life to found in 1998.

“Now the PDP has been hijacked by people who have no philosophical or spiritual attachment to the precepts that informed the formation of the party in 1998. What I envisaged for PDP was that it would be a mass movement, satisfying the needs of the masses and having membership from all over the country.

“What I can tell you is that the PDP will not have an easy walk-over this year as it did few years ago, seven years ago; in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 because the party is finding it difficult to manage its successes.

“People who founded and worked for the party are alienated by poor management of success, and those who do not have patience, some of us have decided to find new channels to fulfil their political ambitions.

“I, for instance, first chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT, first chairman of civil society to G34 and so on, if I was not myself, I am not bragging, I am being modest, I have no reason to be in PDP today. All I have received throughout the years is humiliation and neglect.”

APC spokesperson insisted that “We are at a loss how on earth our revered elder statesman, former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, erudite scholar and one of the shining lights of Ndigbo, Dr. Alex Ekwueme can be out of touch with realities, because of his uncommon concern for the down- trodden.

“It is our candid view that no responsible person will go out of his way to castigate Ekwueme for his patriotic concern that the Nigeria state under President Jonathan’s watch is sliding dangerously into a failed state.”