APGA Members Vow To Pay Obi For Dumping Party

CHUKA UBAH

The nomination of the former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, as the running mate of the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, may not have swayed the members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to vote for PDP in the forthcoming presidential election in 2019 following the reactions of the members in SouthEast recently.

P.M.EXPRESS investigations revealed that APGA members in the four major states visited namely Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Abia States may not have forgotten how Mr. Peter Obi dumped their party which was regarded by many as the symbol of the late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in Igboland to PDP after using the APGA ticket as governor for 8 years.

The presidential candidate of PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, may have nominated Obi as his running mate for the election with the projection of getting block votes from the eastern part of the country.
However, despite the reality that Obi stands the chance of becoming the highest political office holder from Igbo land and second person in power if Alhaji Atiku Abubakar wins the presidential election in 2019, some of the APGA members were not carried away by such sentiment.

Some of the members who spoke to our correspondent said that the former Governor used the platform to become governor for two terms and was even the BOT chairman of APGA but when he finished his tenure he dumped the party and moved over to PDP. They claimed that if APGA moves its structure to support PDP because of Obi, it means that PDP will take over the states and the structure APGA had laboured over the years to build will be destroyed hence they choose to remain in APGA.
Another factor according to the members is the lingering feud between Gov. Willie Obiano and Mr. Peter Obi which had gotten so deep over undisclosed issues. It was gathered that some prominent Igbo people including top ministers of God had tried to intervene yet it was not settled.
“Obiano is the leader of APGA which membership is mainly in the southeast and if he hands over the party structure and support to Obi, his political future will be threatened and so he cannot support Obi” the source said.

However, some of the PDP members believe that Igbo people will give Mr. Peter Obi massive support because he had not dented his image and performed creditably well when he was governor.
Some that were non partisan insisted that the Igbo people will vote for PDP because of Obi and they promised to mobilize the people to support him because he will transfer the ideas he used as governor to the national level and things will stabilize in the economy of the country.