APGA national chairman remains suspended – NWC

The National Working Committee of the All Progressives Grand Alliance has insisted that its National chairman, Chief Victor Ike Oye, remains suspended. 

The party’s Acting National Chairman, Ozo Nwabueze Okafor made the clarification in a press briefing at the weekend.

According to him, the peace moves by the Anambra state governor, Willie Obiano had failed following subsequent conduct and utterances of Oye.

Dr Oye was purportedly suspended on Wed, October 5 for an alleged gross misconduct. 

Chief Ralph Igwa, speaking on behalf of the governor, noted he had intervened and resolved the crisis, contrary to the posture being presented by NWC.

The statement noted, “In a meeting with APGA’s National stakeholders which was attended by members of the party’s National Working Committee and key leaders of the party across the country in Awka on Wednesday, Governor Obiano successfully resolved last week’s internal leadership crisis in the Party’s National Working Committee (NWC), which led to the purported suspension of the Party’s National Chairman, Chief Dr Victor Ike Oye by some aggrieved members of the NWC led by the Party’s Vice Chairman South East Chief Ozo Nwabueze.

“The meeting was attended by the Party’s former National Chairman, Chief Victor Umeh, Nigeria’s Former Ambassador to Spain, Mrs Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu , the former National Secretary, Alhaji Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi and Dr Alex Oti, the party’s 2015 candidate in Abia State.

“The meeting noted that the current APGA Constitution lays emphasis on internal crisis resolution through dialogue in line with the APGA’s motto which is: Be Your Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper. 

“The meeting praised Gov Obiano for promptly calling party stakeholders to explore internal crisis resolution mechanism to deal with the current leadership dispute in the Party’s NWC in accordance with the Party’s new emphasis on crisis management through internal dialogue”. 

It noted that, “the meeting observed that although the aggrieved members had raised pertinent issues, the decision to suspend the National chairman and announce a replacement didn’t follow the laid down procedures in the current constitution of APGA.

“The meeting noted the salient issues raised by the aggrieved members of the NWC and cautioned that mutual respect and friendly disposition and trust must be observed by all party members and leaders in the day to day activities and in the leadership of the party to enhance collective decision making.”

The Acting National chairman (Okafor) commended the efforts of the governor and other stakeholders of the party in trying to resolve the crisis in the party.

He, however, insisted that Oye must vacate his seat. 

He said” After the governor and stakeholders’ meeting, we decided to calm down in the interest of peace and respect for our leaders, but our suspended National chairman continued to address the press and castigating us. 

“He called us dissidents, rebels and said we were settled with spaghetti and such derogatory comments. 

“Our suspended chairman said we had no rights under our party’s constitution to suspend him. This shows that he a stranger to our party because section 20 and 22 permit the NWC to suspend any officer of the party on gross misconduct. 

He alleged that Oye unilaterally ran the party, including nomination of governorship candidates in various states without the knowledge of the NWC. 

Okafor maintained that the NWC would use every legal means to stop Oye from parading himself as the national chairman of the party.

From Chuks Collins, Awka