IMO APC STATE CONGRESS: Eke Emerges Chairman As Madumere Hails Peaceful Conduct…As Okorocha Is Once Again Schemed Out

The All Progressives Congress, APC, Imo State chapter, against all odds, Saturday, May 19, 2018, successfully held its State Congress with Dr. Hillary Eke returning as the State Chairman.

The occasion, which attracted delegates from 27 local government areas of the State, was conducted under a peaceful atmosphere.

The Congress was conducted by Musa Umar-led Congress Committee, at the NDDC Youth Skill Acquisition Centre, in Ehime Local Government Area of the State in place of the Party Secretariat, which was last week set ablaze by unknown miscreants and cordoned off by security agents. The exercise witnessed delegates electing candidates of their choice.

The Congress, which also witnessed the return of Hon. Ugochukwu Nzekwe as the Vice Chairman, led to the emergence of new executive members from the three zones of the State.

In his reaction, the State Deputy Governor Prince Eze Madumere, commended the party faithful for conducting themselves peacefully during and after the congress, saying that with this, the party is set to move forward and better equipped to face other critical challenges.

He boasted that the Party is on the same page both at the state and the national level with a view to emerging victorious in 2019 general election.

The Deputy Governor charged all party supporters to remain resolute and keep faith with the Party as the leadership is set to address issues that concern people’s welfare and developmental programmes that would trickle down to the down trodden as enshrined in its constitution.

“I congratulate all elected executive members of our great party for emerging victorious in this keenly contested congress. I urge them to be magnanimous in victory and ensure that carry everybody along as we are one family.

“Let me also implore all to remember that our goal is to better the lots of our people and we must be careful how we manage our relationship with our people because that is the whole essence of governance,” he enthused.

In his contribution, the Chairman of APC Disciplinary Committee, Barrister Kingsley Ononuju, said the congress was a great success, saying it showed that people are determined to take back their party.

He expressed gratitude to the delegates who showed determination to return the party to its glorious path.

Speaking on the court injunction, he said there was no court injunction and that if there was, the party was ready to obey since we are law abiding.

“I can tell you authoritatively, there was no such injunction restraining us from holding our State Congress. We know those who flout court orders. Our joy is that he now knows that courts exist. We advise them to look back and obey all existing court orders.

Speaking on his re-election, Dr. Eke thanked the party faithful for reposing confidence on him, promising to work with all so as to reposition the party for greater success with the hind sight of upholding the freedom of the citizenry and democratic tenets.

Meanwhile, Governor Rochas Okorocha has described the not-more-than ten people that have Constituted themselves into a Staggering group called Stakeholders, as Cowards, whom he said are afraid of going to the field to test their popularity, stating that they cannot make any demand from Imo people when it comes to voting.

The Governor spoke on Saturday while on an inspection of some key projects at Okigwe, arguing that their interest is the treasury of the State, which they have been starved of, for almost eight years now and advised Imo people not to be deceived by the antics of these people.

He added “I think they’re very good at propaganda and again they talk all kinds of things just to deceive the people but the fact is that they should stop deceiving the people. They’re only asking for relevance and they will not get that relevance through this method”.

In his words, “What you have is a group of people dramatizing polities and they’re not going far with it. We just allowed them to keep perambulating about, because that is the nature of their political style, which they are bringing from PDP into our party, which we have built when they were not there.

“All of a sudden they found a very beautiful party and they want to mess it up. This is their style of politics but let me tell you, they can’t go far with it.”

The Governor remarked futher: “If they come to me and say listen, we want to join this party and we want to be loyal members of the party, this is our interest, then we can discuss it.

“But thinking that they can come through the window into a house built in years cannot work and this is just a mere deceit.

“These people we are talking about may not produce 500 people in Imo State. They just go to Abuja and come back and tell all kinds of stories to convince or confuse the people that they now have a structure.”

He said: “These peaceful legacies that we have established, the free education that’s going on, infrastructural development and what have you.

“The peace, the security in Imo State which have never happened in the past will not be allowed to erode in the hands of these people. Imolites will tell them whom they are when the time comes”.

He continued: “For Congress, there has never been any Congress in Imo State. What the party did was to avoid any crisis arising from this their behaviour and to get a court injunction stopping them and the case comes up on the 22nd of this month. That will determine whether there will be any Congress. But we have to do the Ward Congress. We can’t have a State if there’s no LG Congress.”

The Governor challenged on their popularity, saying “if they know they’re popular they should come to the wards so that people can vote them. But theirs is act of cowardice and I think they’re political cowards who can’t stand the people and do the right thing.

“What makes them think they’re powerful is because I stopped the tenure elongation and for these, at the National Working Committee, especially the Chairman himself, the National Organizing Secretary and I think about four people there, they want to take their bound of flesh to make sure they stop us in Imo State,” he stated.