VICTOR UMEH ASKED TO TENDER APOLOGY TO THE IGBO'S

As the crisis rocking the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra State continues unabated, the party's National Chairman, Chief Victor Umeh, has been asked to publicly apologise to Igbos for allegedly collaborating with Governor Peter Obi to disallow a former
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, from contesting the November 16 governorship election.
Making the accusation yesterday in a statement signed on behalf of the Igbo Youth Council (IYC), the trio of ...
Mike Ozoemena, Osita Nkanna and Clems Adizua, who are the National Coordinator,
National Secretary and United Kingdom (UK)- Diaspora Coordinators respectively, pointed accusing fingers at Umeh over what led to the
disqualification of Soludo.
The body, which is an amalgamation of 22 Igbo
youths, professionals and student organisations,
with about 700,000 membership across Nigeria
and in the Diaspora, said Umeh was deliberately
working to whittle down the influence of the
party. Consequently, the group insisted that
Umeh should apologise for allegedly 'selling' the
future of the state and Igbos.
The group bemoaned that while APGA had been
engulfed in a leadership crisis, rather than seek
reconciliation, "Umeh in a cantankerous manner
is fighting to kill the party at all cost, trying to use
the usual strategy of falsehood and blackmail to
defend the indefensible.
"Umeh was challenged to deny whether or not
"he personally went to beg Soludo in his house
to join APGA and be the candidate," while Soludo
was said to have asked for time to think about it,
adding that: "Umeh assured Soludo of APGA
ticket at a meeting of some eminent Nigerians."
The grouse, however, was that Soludo was lured
into the party, "simply to raise his (Umeh')
bargain price for whoever eventually emerges.
The group alleged that Umeh had received N600
million from Obi to allow him choose the party
candidate.
"That Umeh and Obi later had parallel "peace
negotiations" (in the presence of eminent clergy
men) bordering mostly on the selection of APGA
candidate. As a result, Obi paid Umeh N600
million (which Umeh has confirmed to several
persons), and Obi has told everyone that the
payment was in return for Umeh to allow him to
nominate the APGA candidate", IYC claimed.
The group also alleged that Obi had told Umeh
and several other stakeholders that President
Goodluck Jonathan did not want Soludo as
APGA candidate and that "the campaign by Obi
and Umeh that the president did not want Soludo
was known to many stakeholders in and outside
the state.
"Many people also know of the persistent and
unrelenting blackmail and campaign of calumny
mounted by Obi at the Presidential Villa to
perpetuate a fear in the mind of the president and
his wife that Soludo had a presidential ambition
and therefore might not support President
Jonathan in 2015 if he was allowed to be
governor of Anambra State.
"In Anambra, Obi mounted a campaign that if
Soludo is allowed to become governor, he would
behave like Rochas Okorocha (Imo State) in the
sense that he would decamp to opposition party
to contest for president or vice-president. This
propaganda became the talking point of his
henchmen, in the desperate attempt to blackmail
Soludo," part of the statement read.
They, however, stressed that with the president's
denial that he directed that he did not want
Soludo, then Umeh and Obi should have invented
the insidious campaign to easily perfect their
"negotiations and payment."
IYC maintained that other aspirants were
disqualified to create an impression that it
wasn't Soludo alone that was disqualified.
The group described as "flimsy and stupid," the
excuse that Soludo had a pending Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
investigation given as part of the reasons to
disqualify him, condemning the fact that "the
result of the screening was announced on the
Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) network
news and all news media that Soludo and five
others disqualified by APGA a day before
aspirants were given the result of the screening."
According to the group, Soludo satisfied the
provisions of Section 6 of the 'APGA Electoral
Guidelines for the the state governorship primary
election 2013' which provides that: "An aspirant
to the gubernatorial primary election shall not be
qualified to be nominated or to contest the
primary election, if he fails to produce his
personal income tax certificate, presents a false
birth certificate or declaration of age, disqualified
by the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as
amended, the Electoral Act 2010 as amended or
the provisions of the party's constitution",
stressing that his disqualification was invented
outside of the guidelines issued by the party's
NEC.