By Bevelyn Ehia, Abakaliki
Group known as APC Legacy members of the Ebonyi State Wednesday raised the alarm that governor David Umahi of the state is crippling the All Progressive Congress.
The group made up of old members of APC alleged that governor Umahi refused allowing the old members take part in the electorial processes of the party which according to them had led to most of them going to seek refuge in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
They disclosed this during a press briefing in Abakaliki.
Addressing Journalists, the leader of the group Alhaji Haruna Aja, called on the National leadership of the party to rescue the party from collapsing.
Reading his statement Ajah said,
“Gentlemen, we convened this press conference to alert Nigerians on the destructive and dictatorial activities of Governor David Umahi on the Ebonyi State chapter of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“We, the legacy and loyal members of APC in Ebonyi State also want the national leadership of APC to intervene to ensure that the party, which we laboured to build is not destroyed.
“Let us from the outset put it on record that in November 2021 when Governor Umahi officially joined APC, he did not come into the party with any notable stakeholder of his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“We recall that PDP produced three Senators, five members of the House of Representatives, and 24 members of the State House of Assembly. But, through coercion and other underhand methods, the governor was able to lure 17 members of the State House of Assembly into APC. These 17 lawmakers were recently sacked by the Federal High Court, Abuja for breaching constitutional provisions by their defection. We wish to alert the national secretariat, the leadership of the party, and the general public that in the course of their defense, the 16 state lawmakers deposed on oath that they are not members of APC and that they have not defected to APC.
“However, not minding that he joined APC with less than 20 per cent of members of his former party, Governor Umahi has continued to push out foundation members from APC, for example, a founding member, Chief Austin Igwe Edeze, a former BOT member of APC who was a gubernatorial aspirant in 2019 and now gubernatorial aspirant in PDP and Engr. Peter Edeh, a founding member and former House of Representatives Member under APC now a House of Representatives Aspirant in PDP among others, This act of quiet destruction of APC structure in Ebonyi State by Umahi has been worsened by his penchant for the imposition of candidates for elective positions.
“Evidence of this discrimination against legacy members of APC in the state is the recent national convention of the party where the governor singlehandedly, without consultation imposed the three slots zoned to Ebonyi State on the party.
Without respecting the need for harmonization and integration, the governor continues to deploy the handful of persons he brought into APC in virtually all positions at the expense of old members that he met in the party.
“Governor Umahi is pursuing that narrow agenda by preventing original APC members from aspiring to any elective positions. He does not consult stakeholders before making decisions that affect the party. He made sure that the few PDP members he brought into APC made up 95% of all the Local Government and Ward Executives of the party in the state. For instance, currently, the man he has anointed as APC gubernatorial candidate is an embattled speaker who has not defected to the party, the three senatorial seats, four House of Representatives, and twenty-four House of Assembly seats are all reserved for Governor Umahi for PDP members who returned with him.
“We have been trying to make the governor see reasons and imbibe democratic ethos in the running of APC in Ebonyi State, but Governor Umahi has continued to shun entreaties to follow the path of civility and fairness.
“The situation in Ebonyi State APC is that while the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is bubbling with activities in readiness for the election, APC is in near-comatose as genuine members have been rendered docile out of fear and dread for the governor’s highhandedness.
“While there are over 12 governorship aspirants in PDP and between 2 and 3 contestants in every constituency, APC has only four governorship aspirants against the nine we had in 2019. This further shows how the party in Ebonyi has shrunk under the leadership of Governor Umahi. Yet the governor ordered the governorship aspirants to reach out to the party executives, insisting that the aspirants can only get to the executives in their constituencies.
“In the light of these obvious efforts by the governor to impose his preferred candidate on Ebonyi State APC, we use this opportunity to plead with our national leaders to ensure that direct primaries are organized for aspirants in the state.
“We believe that only a direct primary where the aspirants would test their popularity could restore the confidence of APC members in the party’s candidates and not the choice of one man who wants to pitch Ebonyi APC against the people”.