By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – The internal crisis in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), appears to be getting worse as the national chairman, Edozie Njoku, has warned party faithful to stay away from the party primary scheduled by a faction of the party.
The former national chairman of the party, Chief Victor Oye, was recently removed from office by the Supreme Court.
The embattled chairman, had scheduled a party primary for the first week of August, but Njoku has said that aspirants should not take part in the exercise he described as “illegal”.
Njoku said he has notified INEC about the planned “illegality”.
The contentious primary, according to a statement by a factional national organising secretary, Ifeanyi Mbaeri, is billed to take place on August 2 and 3, 2022.
The statement said it’s meant to elect new candidates to replace the withdrawn state assembly and governorship candidates.
The nomination form is put at N500,000 for Houses of Assembly and N5 million for governorship aspirants, adding that deadline for submission of INEC Forms EC9 and EC13 of newly nominated State House of Assembly and governorship candidates was Saturday, August 6 by 6 pm.
The statement read: “In strict compliance with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC timetable and schedule of activities for 2023 general election, the All Progressives Grand Alliance has fixed fresh primaries to hold on August 2 and 3, 2022 respectively for the nomination of fresh candidates to replace withdrawn State House of Assembly and governorship candidates.”
But Njoku countered that submission thus: “Yes, most of the candidates have identified fully with the authentic structure of APGA, which is the one we lead.
“So what he is planning with the illegal fresh primary is to grab people from the PDP and APC to collect their money and illegally fill those gaps created by candidates who have identified with us as the authentic leadership of the party
“But it will not happen because we have alerted INEC on it and we have made them (INEC) to know that they are the cause of the illegality being perpetuated by Oye in APGA.
“If not, why would the Supreme Court get up and declare who the authentic APGA chairman is, and INEC is still allowing someone else to parade himself and conduct primaries, this is very unfair and against the rule of law. We have, however, written to INEC on this
“The aspirants should be old and literate enough to follow and understand what has been going on in the party.
“They know what is right, so if they allow themselves to be fooled and tricked by Oye, that is their problem.
“That will not in any way affect our plans because we know that INEC will definitely wake up from their slumber.
“When they do, you will see things change immediately, our candidates will begin to roar.
“I am not worried because I am convinced that the truth has come and within a short time, INEC will realise itself and obey the court order.
“For now, they are yet to take any stand, but very soon the whole truth will come out,” Njoku said.