The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Thursday took a position on the leadership crisis rocking the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, saying Victor Umeh is the authentic National Chairman of the party.
INEC’s position on the matter came just hours after Umeh maintained that the party was not in any merger talks with any other political party.
In a letter made available to DailyPost, INEC Secretary, Abdulahi Kaugama, while addressing the APGA National Chairman said, “The Commission notes the ruling of the Court of Appeal which stayed execution of the order of the Enugu High Court that restrained Chief Sir. Victor Umeh from parading himself as National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance,APGA.
“Consequently, the Commission will continue to relate with Chief Sir Victor Umeh as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance ,APGA.
“Please accept the assurances of the Commission’s highest regards,” the letter added..
In a chat with newsmen at the party’s National Headquarters in Abuja, Umeh stressed that APGA was poised to win the governorship election in Anambra State and fully prepare for the general elections in 2015.
In his words: “For some time now, some people have been holding out themselves as the leadership of APGA but for the fact that we believe in the rule of law, we wrote INEC, and forwarded to it the copy of the Court of Appeal ruling staying the execution of the Enugu State High Court. APGA has no factional national chairman, there is no faction in APGA.”
“We commend INEC for adhering to the rule of law and upholding the rule of law by respecting the decision of the Court of Appeal; this development has reinvigorated the APGA.”
“So, any person that wants to do business with the party knows where to go, they should stop all this dissident activity as the leadership will no longer tolerate it, any person who wants to be in the party must respect the leadership of the party, APGA has never had two factions,” he added.
Commenting on the proposed merger, Umeh said: “We have always said that our party is not part of any merger talks, that position has not changed, APGA will never merge with any political party.”
“We have said it often that we know the reason behind the formation of this party, we have always said that we are ready to go into an alliance with any party, any person that says that APGA is in a merger talks is on his own.”
“Even Governor Okorocha who has been championing the merger will tell you that I have advised him personally, several times before he went public.”
“If Okorocha still claims that he is still a member of this party, he must subject himself to the authority of the party leadership or he should stop dropping the name of APGA.”
Umeh went on to allege that all the crisis within the party was being orchestrated by Anambra state Governor, Peter Obi.
“He is the one to be held responsible for all these problems,” he said.
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