APGA crisis deepens as Obi dumps Umeh

PETER OBI & VICTOR UMEH FORMER FRIENDS NOW IN A FULL SCALE WAR !!!

The crisis in All Progressives Grand Alliance deepened on Monday after Anambra Governor Peter Obi dumped his kinsman and national chairman of the party, Chief Victor Umeh, to join forces with the faction led by Alhaji Saadiq Masalla.

The governor, who was represented by Chief Obinna Okafor at the National Executive Committee meeting convened by the Masalla group, said time had come “to move the party forward”.

Other top ranking members of the party who attended the meeting included a former Minister of Health, Dr. Tim Menakaya, who replaced the late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu as the Leader of the party.

Obi explained that what was uppermost in the party was to plan how to win the governorship elections in Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, Rivers, Delta, Lagos, Kano and Plateau states.

Okafor said, “Governor Obi would have been present at this meeting but he sends his apologies. He wants APGA to secure these states and move forward rather than retrogressing as we have all seen.

“He is of the opinion that if this party should make progress, we should review our constitution and open up the party so that new members could come in through massive registration of members throughout the country. He is firmly behind this move to reposition the party.”

Menakaya said APGA needed to change and prove to Nigerians that it had the capacity to move the country forward.

He said, “The party must open up, expand and be a party to be embraced by every Nigerian. The party must stop hiding and come out into the open.

“As one of the people who founded APGA and funded this party, we must not stop saying that out party must be able to accommodate everybody and not be a close-ended political party.

“Our leaders should be people who should have patient; who should have listening ear so that everybody will be contented. Change is natural in the affairs of men”.

Other personalities at the meeting included a former Minister of Culture and Tourism, Chief Frank Ogbuewu, who spoke on behalf of the governorship candidates of the party and representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission led by its Director (political party monitoring), Mrs. Regina Omo-Agege, who observed the proceedings of the NEC in line with the party’s constitution and the extant powers of INEC.