The crisis ridden All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, on Friday fused the party into the United Progressives Party, UPP.
DAILY POST reports that sixteen of the 18 members of APGA announced the “political marriage” in Enugu after they had paid homage to the former founding chairman of the party, Chief Chekwas Okorie, who is now the national chairman of the UPP.
Apart from the 16 NWC members led by Chief Chris Ejike Uche, the delegate was also accompanied by other national leaders of APGA, including members of the Board of Trustees, BoT.
In unison, they declared that “APGA is now dead and buried; this is not a merger; it is a home-coming. So, from today, there is no more APGA.”
Leader of the APGA delegation, which included 16 NWC members, and some BoT members, Chief Chris Ejike Uche noted that there had been the desire for a true progressive party in the country.
He stated that “over 90 percent of what you know as APGA took the bold step to fuse into the UPP.
“The 16 members out of the 18 NWC members are here and that attests to the seriousness of what we have done here today.
“We recall that Chief Chekwas Okorie founded the APGA but it was unjustly taken away from him. He left with the soul of APGA and that is why the party has been struggling all these years.
“Today, we have come back and we are happy to announce that APGA has now been fused into the UPP. Whatever you may hear as APGA after today is the carcas. It has been finnaly buried today.”
All the Speakers, including the Deputy National Chairman of the party, Sadiq Massala, confessed that they betrayed Okorie during the early crisis period in the party.
He, however, declared that: “we have come to tell the world that from today, we have laid APGA to rest and we are now in UPP. We betrayed him and went into confusion and that confusion could not yield result.
“We could not move forward for the past 10 years; therefore, we have come back.
“The APGA members in the 19 Northern States mandated me to be here and speak on their behalf. The decomposing body, the carcas is what we have left behind. You can imagine a party going to court for the past 14 years.
“This is not really a merger; it is a home-coming; we have come back to where we belong.”
Another leader in the party, Dr. Isah Jega, who is the chairman of the APGA chairmen in the 36 States and the FCT, Abuja noted that “today is a very remarkable day in the history of democracy in Nigeria. This is a day democrats have come together to look forward to a better Nigeria.
“We are not in UPP to bring councillors; we are in UPP to win chairmanship, governorship and presidential positions and I am telling you that that President will be of Igbo extraction.
“By the grace of God, in 2019, the real change will come; we are looking forward to the East for the President of Nigera.”
The representative of the South-West, Hon. E.A Adekunle and that of the South-South, Sunday Obasahon, also re-echoed the stand of the their colleagues that APGA was now dead and buried.
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