Appointment of APGA chieftain by Gbajabiamila tears South East APC apart

By Patrick Okohue

The recent appointment by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila of former Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Anayo Nnebe, as Special Assistant on Political Matters is threatening the unity of his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the South East region.

The APC in Anambra State, the Conference of South East APC Publicity Secretaries, and the South East APC Young Progressives Forum have collectively drawn a sword, condemned the choice of Nnebe and calling for his replacement.

It will be recalled that Gbajabiamila on Tuesday announced the appointment of the former Speaker who also represented Awka North and South federal constituency in Anambra State as one of his aides from South East.

The various groups reacted in separate statements on Wednesday, the party and other bodies described the appointment as a big slap on the face of APC.

Their grouse against Nnebe who is a member of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is that he fought APC and called their members all sorts of names during the elections.

Those who signed the statement for the South East forum of publicity secretaries of APC are Kate Offor (Enugu ), Nwoba Chika Nwoba (Ebonyi) and Benedict Godwin (Abia).

Pascal Otimkpu spoke on behalf of South East APC Young Progressives Forum, Secretary of APC in Anambra State, Chukwuma Agufugo, spoke for his party, while Madukaife Okelo spoke for Conference of Southeast Publicity secretaries.

While Mr Otimkpu said it was not about appointment but agenda, he said, “You cannot drive an agenda with people who do not believe in it, Nnebe and his cohorts have never and will never believe in our party agenda,” he argued.

For Agufugo, the party has competent, well-qualified and mature persons in the party to function in any position, adding that the choice of an APGA member was wrong and should be withdrawn.

The party’s decision was taken in Awka after an emergency meeting by its State Working Committee.

They said: “We reject the appointment of Hon. Anayo Nnebe as Special Assistant (South East) to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

“Nnebe is a die-hard opposition to APC in Anambra State, the South East Zone and Nigeria in general. He is instrumental to APC seat of Awka Federal Constituency eluding our party, even though he lost also.

“Political positions in the ruling party should not serve to rehabilitate oppositions who caused damage to our party’s fortunes”

“The Senate President made a similar error and promptly corrected it when issues were raised and there ought to be enough deterrent flowing from there.”