BY PRINCELY ONYENWE,IMO
As APC party congress draws near, the APC National registration appeal led by Alhaji Farouk Adamu Aliyu on Thursday paid a working visiting to Gov. Hope Uzodimma at the Sam Mbakwe EXCO chamber, Government House to appeal for the integration of Sen Rochas Okorocha, Sen Ararume, Dan Nwafor and a few others into the just concluded APC National registration exercise.
9News Nigeria reports that the head of the delegation , Alhaji Farouk Aliyu noted that the visit was necessitated by petitions written by Sen Rochas okorocha to the care taker national leadership of the party on his exclusion from the concluded party registration exercise.
He hinted that they were in Imo state to resolve AILLING groups having received complaints from some members that were not registered.
He noted that the had earlier held a meeting with the pettitioners who have spoken to them that they were refused registration.
He said they National Caretaker have had their complaints and assured them that they shall be registered.
In his words, “we also had interaction with the chairman of imo APC chief Macron Nlemigbo , from his own side of the story. From the discussions we discovered that there was a communication gap, we are here to ensure that level playing ground is giving to all APC members willing to register. Your Excellency, please treat this complaints as a family affairs. We are impressed with the massive turn out of members in registering with the party, we hope other states would emulate imo state”
In Response, Gov. Hope Uzodimma appreciated the APC National registration appeal committee led by Alhaji Farouk Aliyu for coming to see and hear things for themselves noting that the registration exercise was open to all members and non-members alike.
Gov Hope Uzodimma stated that he was not unaware that some people wanted to hijack the process but failed hence directing their followers not to participate in the registration.
“I am not unaware that some people wanted to hijack the process,but what I assured everybody is that nobody would be excluded , I recall getting a phone call from the Governor of Niger state telling me that Sen Okorocha complained he was refused registration.
The governor futher stated that contrary to Okorocha’s position here, where he directed his followers not to go and register, I even offered the Niger state Governor to get a date from Okorocha and possibly join me in Imo to receive him in his ward and supervise his registration.
Gov. Hope Uzodimma reiterated that his interest was for the growth of the party, hence wouldn’t work to exclude anybody from registering and if possible he would have registered people outside the state to get the desired number he was looking for.
“What is the point of going to Calabar to lobby people to join our party, if am in my state excluding people from registering into the party, the APC before I became the Governor can never be the same. APC then was not managed by the people, it was difficult mentioning the party in any church, but now APC is like a national anthem everywhere in Imo state.
“Why will I struggle for structure, before I became the candidate, we were excluded from the Congresses, if not for the direct primaries we wouldn’t have had any chance, not even my ward chairman , everything was controlled by former Governor Okorocha the way he wanted, but by the grace of God, APC came with that popular policy of direct primaries where the people were allowed to vote”
In conclusion, governor Uzodinma maintained that the same way he benefited from the direct primaries, people should prepare, do their home work , they may benefit from direct primary.
He assured the committee led by ALHAJI FAROUK to go home, feel free to call me anytime, if there is anything we are not doing well, if my attention is called to it, it would be corrected, I will do my best to ensure that things are done the right way”
“NO PARTY MEMBER WILL BE DISENFRANCHISED” – GOV. UZODIMMA REPLIED THE PANEL.
9News Nigeria (Owerri)
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