Anambra 2010: The crisis rocking the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) took a new twist last Friday when the Chekwas Okorie faction of the party wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to substitute Governor Peter Obi with former House of Representatives member, Mr. Peter Ozodinobi.
Ozodinobi had won the party’s primaries before being substituted after the adoption of Governor Obi last October when INEC ordered Okorie to release the nomination forms CF001 and CF002 to Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu following a protracted peace meeting.
The letter written to INEC chairman, Prof Maurice Iwu by Barrister Bello Umar among others accused Governor Obi of carrying a fake APGA membership card and his failure to reach out to the Okorie faction officially recognised by INEC.
The letter reads in part: “We are constrained by the uncompromising stand of the Dim Odumegwu – Ojukwu-led faction of APGA and compelled by the greater interest of the party to apply to your Commission to accept our party’s candidate for Governor and Deputy Governor for the 2010 governorship election in Anambra State in the persons of Hon. George Ozodinobi and Hon. (Dr.) Okey Umeano respectively.
“The National Working Committee of our party met today, Friday 4th December 2009, where the resolution was unanimously passed to effect this change based on the following well considered reasons: Since the 10th of October 2009, our National Chairman Chief Chekwas Okorie conveyed to us the outcome of the intervention of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit of your Commission to the effect that Mr. Peter Obi be adopted as the consensus candidate of our party for the 2010 governorship election in Anambra state no, deliberate effort has been made by Mr. Peter Obi to contact the leadership of our party to consummate and consolidate the proposed truce in which he is the major beneficiary.
“Our party held a valid National Convention on 2nd September 2009, where far reaching resolutions concerning the membership of some former National Officers of the party and Mr. Peter Obi were reached. This convention has not been nullified by any court of law, and therefore subsisting. Mr. Peter Obi has arrogantly disregarded the serious implication of the resolution of the National Convention regarding his membership of the Party. That is why he has refused to dialogue with the leadership of the party on how to review his peculiar circumstance and regularize his membership.”