The Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Imo State chapter, Prince (Barr.) Marcillinus Nlemigbo, has described the recent press statement credited to Dr. Lawrence Chuku, Chairman, APC Screening Committee, as misleading. He described Chuku “as a notorious merchant of mischief and confusion, who in the pursuit of inordinate and material benefits, has exposed himself as an unworthy, dishonourable and a mischievous character.”

Chuku had during a press conference announced that his committee during the discharge of its duties disqualified six senatorial aspirants, among whom was Hon. Frank Ibezim.

Nlemigbo, however, dismissed the claim as “an afterthought and a worthless exercise sponsored by desperate politicians.” He regretted that a man like Chuku “could become a willing tool in the hands of political desperados for monetary consideration at the expense of his hard-earned reputation.”

The APC chairman, who made this disclosure in Abuja while addressing pressmen, maintained that Chuku actually acted out of ignorance as his committee has since ceased to exist having concluded its assignment. According to the him, “Chuku’s action smacks of ignorance, because the lifespan of his committee terminated immediately after the screening exercise, and as such has no more legitimacy to speak on party directives.”

Nlemigbo informed that prior to the conduct of the primary, the national caretaker/ extraordinary convention planning committee of the party, through the National Deputy Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yekini Nabena, made public the list of 11 screened cleared aspirants for Imo APC. He wondered where Chuku and his collaborators were then.

Speaking further, Nlemigbo queried why it took Chuku more than three days after the primary election and 10 days after the screening process to come up with his disqualification claim, “ostensibly orchestrated after his preferred aspirant could not make it at the party primary.” He insisted that Chuku lacks the legitimacy and powers to speak on behalf of the party, since he is not the official spokesman of the party.

Nlemigbo noted that Chuku was recruited to disparage the integrity of APC candidate and discredit the process of his emergence, albeit unsuccessfully.

The chairman maintained that Hon. Sir. Frank Ibezim remains the candidate of the party for the forthcoming Imo North senatorial district bye election, having emerged victorious at the concluded party primary.

Nlemigbo expressed optimism of Ibezim’s victory at the bye-election. He urged the party members and the general public “to disregard the purported disqualification story by agent of destabilisation and political gangsters.”

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