• Party doesn’t need to operate in one-party system to win elections, says Okechukwu
• Umahi will deliver region to Tinubu in 2027, says Ohanaeze
Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-East, at the weekend, intensified their campaign to deepen party’s acceptability in the region.
Rising from their stakeholders’ meeting in Enugu, they urged for more membership of the Igbo indigenes into the party as a way to benefit the region. The leaders said that their appeal is for the betterment of Ndigbo to be in the mainstream of a national ruling political party instead of remaining in the periphery that attracts no dividends.
They made the plea while addressing newsmen shortly after the APC South-East select leaders consultative meeting in Enugu. Among the APC leaders in the zone that attended the meeting were the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, the former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, governors of Imo and Ebonyi states, Hope Uzodinma and Francis Nwifuru, respectively; Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, the Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, Dozie Ikedife, and the executive members of the APC zonal leadership of the APC.
Addressing newsmen, Uzodimma, on their behalf, said that the meeting resolved to continue to work towards making the APC a dominant party in the region.
He said that the meeting was geared towards finding ways to make people of the South-East region see reasons to join the ruling political party.
MEANWHILE, a foundation member of the APC, Mr Osita Okechukwu, said the party doesn’t need to operate in a one-party system to win elections in the country. Okechukwu cited the electoral fortunes of the APC in the 2015, 2019 and 2023 general elections to buttress his assertions in a statement made available to The Guardian yesterday.
He said that what true democrats want is a formidable Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which will act as checks and balances and catapult Nigeria to democratic maturity, not a weak coalition.
He, however, said that as things stand, there is nothing anybody can do to save the PDP from its dangerous slide from a major to a minor political party, consequent upon “self-induced impunity.”
Also, following his 21 months of impactful service as Minister of Works, coupled with the ongoing revolutionary infrastructural projects in the South-East, a faction of the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday, said that David Umahi will deliver the region to President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 general election.
In a statement in Abakaliki, the Deputy National President of the faction, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, noted that through Umahi, Tinubu have reshaped the economic landscape of the zone, instilling new hope and vision within the Igbo nation.
