* EMETUMBA VOWS TO FIGHT TO FINISH*
*BY Cornel Ebere, Special Correspondent*
Chieftains of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA in Imo State have continued to bemoan the deliberate attempt by some elements within APGA to throw the party into crisis by altering and falsifying the lists of delegates to its governorship primaries.
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APGA in Imo State had decided not to organise ward congresses and had opted for harmonisation which was supposed to take place in the various wards among their leaders. The harmonisation, as conceived by its proponents, was geared towards mitigating crisis and ensuring that all shades of opinions were accommodated.
Disputations however began when some persons who have high offices within the party began to interfere in wards and LGAs other than theirs to decide who should be harmonised in or harmonised out of the list.
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In Ideato North, a state vice chairman of APGA, Chief Jerry Okwukaogu, unilaterally cancelled the lists from Akwu/Owerre, Iheme and Obodoukwu Wards, and replaced them with those of his loyalists even when most of them reportedly never purchased forms.
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In Owerri Municipal, the list eventually submitted by the LGA Chairman was entirely different from what his ward chairmen and leaders gave him to submit.
In a chat with newsmen in Owerri on Saturday, a prominent leader in the party, Chief (Engr.) Paul Aballa (Emetumba Ideato), confirmed the development and wondered why some party officials have chosen to mar the electoral chances of the party through greed and unconscionable irregularities.
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“There is no justification whatsoever for an external person to interfere in a ward to audaciously decide those to be included in the harmonisation arrangement, even when such was against the decision of the ward leaders,” Emetumba stated.
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He further explained that ward congress or harmonisation is purely an affair of the ward and the result must reflect the wishes of the ward leadership and members.
The top executive in the Nigerian oil sector also drew attention to the travesty that went for harmonisation in Ideato North LGA. He revealed that a particular governorship aspirant colluded with a state vice chairman of APGA to rewrite the ad hoc delegates list of the LGA. The Ideato-born politician vowed to explore every internal mechanism available within the party to ensure that the situation is remedied and the perpetrators are brought to book.
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