A former chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie on Wednesday said that frustrations by those who hijacked the party from him forced the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu to join Radio Biafra.

Okorie, who rejoined APGA under the leadership of Chief Edozie Njoku in Enugu from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), disclosed that under him as the national chairman of APGA, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Uche Mefor, Egemba, among others were the party leaders in Diaspora.

He said when he left the party to found the United Progressive Party (UPP) in 2012, Kanu and others quit politics to join Radio Biafra.

Okorie stated that he did not abandon APGA but was forced out after several attempts to reconcile both parties were rejected by one party

“Things happened in APGA barely two years after it was founded, just barely a year after it triggered off a revolution in Nigeria.

“We didn’t abandon the ship. We struggled to save the sole of APGA. We struggled for eight years. And the Supreme Court up to three times and no court ever ruled that APGA had a new national chairman.

“We tried reconciliation. There were over 20 attempts to have peace; to reconcile with one another. But it was frustrated by only one side. So, when we left to form another party, the UPP, it was with a heavy heart. But we had to. We felt there was no point continuing fighting. We needed to try our hands elsewhere.

“In 2012, we founded UPP. In the same 2012, all our leaders from diaspora, including Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Uche Mefor, Egemba, all of them said they were tired of the political process in Nigeria and they moved on to join Radio Biafra.

“When that UPP couldn’t move forward, in 2020, we decided to try our hands with the ruling party, the APC.

“We collapsed our structure into the APC. That was a difficult decision for us to make. But, at the end of the day, we weren’t too comfortable in APC. Having been in opposition, fighting a particular course for several decades, it was not so easy to change from the characteristics that you have.

“There was pressure everywhere that we should return to APGA and help to rebuild APGA and help bring it back to the part of that revolution. But I told my associates that we cannot return to APGA from a backyard.

“So, when the Supreme Court in its wisdom, corrected an error they accepted they made in October last year, and affirmed Chief Edozie Njoku as the authentic national chairman of APGA, and the panel headed by now retired Justice Mary Odili, corrected themselves which is allowed under Nigerian laws. And the beneficiary of that judgment, Chief Edozie Njoku is here.

“The judgment did not change in content. It only changed in terms of the beneficiary of that judgment. We saw the judgment. We saw the certification and we saw the signature of Justice Mary Odili.

“We also saw an earlier judgment by the Federal High Court confirming that the convention done in Owerri, Imo State was the authentic and lawful convention of the party. When they got the judgment, their first point of call was here. They were here to appeal to me to return back to the party. The appeal was emotional.

“How could I resist when I have been given the front door to return to the party I built? I couldn’t resist. So, I accepted immediately. I consulted my associates and they said it was a good idea,” he said.

He disclosed before rejoining APGA, he had last month resigned his membership of APC in his Alai ward in Abia State. (The Nation)

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