Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), will hold a town hall meeting in Onitsha, Enugu and Owerri today to solicit the vote of the electorate.

Also expected to berth in Onitsha on Monday is the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan who is expected to meet with the business community in Onitsha to solicit for votes for President Goodluck Jonathan.

News Express gathered that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scheduled the first lady’s visit to scurry the planned APC presidential meeting in Onitsha.

It was also gathered that the former governor of Anambra State, Chief Peter Obi, had earlier paid a visit to Onitsha to meet with the business community as a way of watering the ground and preparing their mind to turn out en masse to welcome the first lady instead of attending the APC meeting.

Menwhile, another former governor of the state, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, who recently dumped PDP for APC, has described his former political heaven as an organization for using and dumping people, saying that injustice has continued to thrive as the bane of the party.

Addressing Journalists in Awka yesterday ahead of Buhari’s visit, Mbadinuju said that the APC presidential candidate would participate in a town hall meeting with the Organised Private Sector in the commercial city of Onitsha adding that he decided to jump ship to APC because the party is a promising political party of the present and future.

Mbadinuju while going down memory lane on what he described as his ugly experience with PDP said he has already informed the executive members of PDP in his Umuaku Ward in Ihiala local government area of his decision to withdraw his membership and his registration with APC.

“It is painful because as a founding member of PDP, who toiled hard to ensure that it gained acceptance of the majority of our people, I had very high hopes for the party.

“But it is necessary to join APC now because it is the right thing to do because it has proved to be a promising party for the present and future as everything good about PDP has since vanished,” he said.

The Anambra State chairman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Chima Okafor explained that the town hall meeting is aimed at addressing some critical policy issues regarding commerce and industry in the South East and its strategic importance to Nigeria.

According to Okafor, the event was geared towards showcasing General Buhari’s policy thrust in the business and industrial sectors where Igbo people feature prominently.

He said: “For the purpose of educating our people in the five South East states on the economic agenda of General Muhamadu Buhari, we have planned this event in the commercial town of Onitsha in order to ensure that our candidate bares his mind on how he intends to restore the manufacturing capacity and the industrial glory of the South East region of Nigeria.

“We want the businessmen and industrialists, who have been bearing the brunt of poor infrastructure, insecurity, poor micro and macro-economic policies and the rapid drop in the value of the Naira against the Dollar, to come and engage General Buhari and see how his policies will transform the South East region into the tiger of Africa.

“We have reached out to these captains of industry because, as creators of economic value, they are essential in the change promise of the APC.

“The South East used to be the industrial engine of the nation, but unfortunately past governments have not been able to implement policies that will rejuvenate the area and tap into the entrepreneurial spirit of the people. This, I believe, the Buhari administration will help achieve.”

•Photo shows Dame Jonathan.

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