By LEO SOBECHI, Abuja

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra State might have to fully integrate into the All Progressives Congress (APC), according to Osita Okechukwu.

Osita Okechukwu is a member of the recently inaugurated APC Anambra Governorship Campaign Council.

Okechukwu made the statement while speaking to journalists and noted that after 16 years of playing in a little pond, APGA should stop agonising and organise properly within the mainstream of Nigeria politics.

He spoke against the background of claims by Anambra State government that the APC procured the Jigawa State High Court judgment that excluded Prof. Chukwuma Soludo from the list of candidates accepted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the November 6 governorship poll in the state.

Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Don Adinuba, had disclosed that searches by the government revealed that the state chapter of APC secured the controversial Jigawa State High Court judgment for the APGA faction led by Chief Jude Okeke.

Adinuba asserted that the Director-General of Andy Uba Campaign Organization, Governor Hope Uzodimma sponsored the High Court judgment for the Okeke faction, which adopted Chukwuma Umeoji as its candidate for the November 6 poll.

But, reacting to the insinuations, Okechukwu, who is also the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), urged APGA and its leaders to join the mainstream and stop agonising in line with APC’s Zikist ideology for national cohesion and development.

“My candid advice to my brothers in APGA is to join us, the APC, in the mainstream of Nigeria politics instead of agonising. We in the APC has long decided to follow the footprints of Zik of Africa, a nationalist per excellence,” Okechukwu said.

“As Zikists, it is our considered opinion that Anambra as a foremost state in the Southeast cannot be singing discordant song paradoxical to the outlook of majority Ndigbo.”

The APC chieftain declared that Senator Andy Uba’s election as governor in the November 6, gubernatorial election “will be a milestone in consolidating our Zikist stance and enhance our quest for Nigeria President of Igbo extraction.”

While acknowledging that APGA took a diligent first step in endorsing President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2019 general election, Okechukwu said APGA should complete what it started by fusing into APC.

“APC’s victory in the forthcoming governorship poll in Anambra State will amount to killing two birds with one stone, specifical entry into the mainstream and election in 2023 of Nigeria President of Igbo extraction,” Okechukwu said.

(Text, excluding headline, courtesy The Guardian)

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