An All Progressive Congress(APC) Pro-group known as the “Blizzard Group (An alleged Realistic Arm of APC Abia State Chapter) has berated the APC in Abia State for participating in the 18th December 2020.
The group in a press release signed by its Director-General Ekekwe John Egu has accused the APC Abia of deceiving unsuspecting party members to participate in the Abia Council Polls with an unrealizable promises of having an agreement of the People Democratic Party(PDP) ceding some Chairmanship/Councillorship seats to the APC during the poll.
The group alleged that this unrealistic promise swayed most party members into using and even borrowing money to participate in an election. whose results has already being predetermined even before it was held.
The group queried if any opposition party has ever won elections in Nigeria including in Abia since State election Umpires took over the conduct of council elections from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Nigeria.
The group said the only time a local government election was held in Abia State was in 1998 during the time of Abdulsalami Abubakar as Head of State.
The group posited that the 1998 local government election was a keenly contested one in Abia as it saw members from both the People Democratic Party (PDP) and All People’ s Party(APP) winning Chairmanship/Councillorship seat in Abia.
The Billizard group stated that since,2002 that State Independent Electoral Commission took over the conduct of local government elections, it has been a winner took all situation.
The group cited the 2004 council poll conducted by Chief Orji Uzor Kalu as the then Abia governor, saw the PDP winning all the Chairmanship /Councillorship seats in Abia, except in Umuahia South were the former governor moved Max Adindu to the UNPP when Vincent Ogbulafor as the PDP National Organizing Secretary insisted on having his candidate fly the party’s ticket
.The group said that OUK did this and heaven did not fall .
The group therefore called on the APC leadership to run an inclusive party in Abia while positing that idea of imposition ,exclusion and high-tech false claims cannot do anybody any good.
The group also called on the APC leadership in Abia to look for a way to cushion the losses of those who were cajoled into participating in the just concluded council polls.
The group also called on the APC to stop crying fowl ,asked the party to put its house in order stating that apart from the affirmative congress that returned President Buhari as the Party’s Presidential candidate for the 2019 Poll and the keenly contested primaries in 2018 that produced Uche Ogah and the Party’s gubernatorial candidate in the 2019 elections ,there has never been any form of election in determining party position.
The group alleged that the Reality Organization in Igbere has hijacked the APC Abia.
The group therefore questioned how a party whose candidates were selected and supplanted by the reality organization in Igbere without any form of internal party democracy can win a council election in Abia.
The group also queried while while expanded Party caucus meetings will be held in peoples personal homes at Igbere when the party has a secretariat.
The group also questioned how the APC intends to grow beyond Abia North when caucus meetings are held to the exclusion of high ranking party members like Chief BB Apugo who is a National Board of Trustees Member as well Sampson Uche Ogah,the current minister from Abia extraction and the representative of Mr President as the party leader in Abia.
The blizzard group therefore ask the party in Abia to truly unite its members if it wants to stand a chance to win elections .
The group also called on the National Assembly to amend the constitution to transfer the conduct of local government elections to INEC,a course the group asked the Senate Chief Whip Dr Orji Uzor Kalu to use his position in the National Assembly to champion stating that until this is done,the cry of rigged local government elections by state governors will just be mere noise making.