The Chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) Rev Augustine Ehiemere has urged Igbos to salvage their name by identifying with APGA in 2023 polls. The party Chairman described as disgrace, the manner the candidates of South East lost out in recent PDP and APC presidential primaries, held in Abuja.
Ehiemere stated this at party secretariat in Umuahia while addressing the press on some invents in the Abia, especially the recent governorship primary of APGA in the State.
He made it clear that APGA is the only political party that can protect the interests of people of old Eastern region in development, security, employment and investment. The party also rubbished some social media reports where a former guber aspirant, Sir Chikwe Udensi was proclaimed as the authentic guber candidate of APGA for 2023.
The party made it clear that Udensi came last in the recently concluded governorship primary with only 12 votes while Prof Gregory Ibe won the primary election.
APGA informed Abians that Udensi’s claim of being the party’s candidate is not only baseless, but a deliberate attempt to disparage and malign the integrity of APGA in Abia. Ehiemere maintained that his party conducted the most credible guber primary election in Abia State, where every aspirant of the party was given a level playing ground to prove his popularity and acceptance to the delegates.
He lamented that Chikwe Udensi after addressing party delegates, sneaked out from the Kolping hall venue of APGA primary and went to a hotel in another part of Umuahia to illegally declare himself as the party’s authentic candidate. The party revealed that Udensi allegedly blocked some progressive-minded personalities from joining APGA, with the claims that he had already been anointed by the national leadership of APGA as candidate for Abia.
APGA also denied demanding money from Udensi to allow him get the guber ticket, making it clear that “No such demand was made by our party .Chikwe Udensi has never contributed a dime to this party in the last three years.”
The party pointed out that a delegate list of Arochukwu Ward 3 which in approved by both national and State secretariat of APGA were different from the one held by Udensi, suggesting that early discovery of Udensi’s alleged plans may have made him to sneak out to another venue to announce himself APGA candidate.
“Any further attempt by Udensi to malign the integrity of the party shall attract severe penalty”, said APGA. He appealed to all defeated aspirants to join hands with the winner, Prof Ibe to win the Abia governorship and other elective positions while advising them against going to Court.