The founding national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) who is also the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Chekwas Okorie, has called for disciplinary action to be taken against the governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, for alleged anti-party activities.
Chief Okorie, while addressing a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, made the call on behalf of the BoT of APGA. He, therefore, advised the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to activate, without delay, the party’s disciplinary machinery to sanction all those who may be found guilty of anti-party activities and whose actions and utterances have brought APGA to public ridicule and shame.
“I strongly advise that the Party’s disciplinary measures must include but not limited to Prof Chukwuma Soludo. The sanctity of the supremacy of the political party in party democracies all over the world must be sustained and maintained,” he said.
Going on memory lane, the founder of APGA recalled several efforts made by the national chairman of the party, Chief Edozie Njoku, to make peace with Governor Soludo, but the governor had remained recalcitrant.
“The entire members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Nigeria and abroad, especially the good people of Anambra State, will bear out that the leadership of our great party under Chief Edozie Njoku as National Chairman, has repeatedly offered Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor of Anambra State extended latitude to halt his continued sponsorship of crisis in APGA. I do not wish to bore you with the plethora of anti-party activities perpetrated and sponsored by the only governor produced on the platform of our party in the present dispensation.
“Highly respected and very senior clergymen in Anambra State, traditional rulers, association of town union presidents-general, several Anambra State business and intellectual elite have at various times appealed to Governor Soludo to cease his unprovoked destabilizing war against the survival of the Party that provided him with the singular opportunity to realize his long elusive life time desire to become the governor of Anambra State, after two previous failed attempts,” he said.
He said in spite of all entreaties to Soludo to give peace a chance to allow APGA to live out its full potential and promise, he remained recalcitrant and carried on like a bull in the China shop.
“When the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered an unambiguous and decisive judgement on the APGA leadership dispute, which affirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the National Chairman of APGA after correcting what Hon. Justice Mary Peter-Odili (Justice of the Supreme Court rtd) in an elucidating letter referred to as a ‘trajectory of errors’ identified in the earlier judgment the Court delivered on 14th October, 2021 in the same suit, every reasonable Nigerian expected that the protracted leadership dispute in APGA would cease finally following the general rule that there must be an end to litigation.
“The authentic National Chairman of APGA, Chief Edozie Njoku immediately extended his hand of fellowship to Gov Soludo and his followers repeatedly to join hands with the leadership of our great party to rebuild it. Similarly, I was unrelenting in appealing to Gov Soludo to use his good offices to promote peace and reconciliation in APGA. I intervened in my capacity as the founder and vision bearer of this great party of immense historical importance in Nigeria,” he said, adding that Soludo and his goons refused to accept the finality of the Supreme Court judgement.
