APGA faction insists Oye must go

The leadership crisis of the Anambra State chapter of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), took a new dimension at the weekend when the Ozo Nwabueze Okafor-led faction insisted the suspended National Chairman, Chief Victor Oye, must go.

Following the suspension of Oye by the National Working Committee (NWC), the Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano, who is the chairman of the Board of Trustee (BoT) and leader of the party on Tuesday convened a meeting of the two factions at the Government Lodge, Awka, with a view to resolving the matter.

It was gathered that the meeting ended in a deadlock as the Okafor group rejected the governor’s plea to allow Oye retain his position.

A source in the Okafor group, who did not want his name on print, said they told the Obiano to look for another person apart from Oye “if he wants the national chairman of APGA to remain in Anambra.”

The source debunked allegation that they received money from the governor, saying: “We were served food provided for us at Government Lodge but we did not even enter the hotel rooms booked for us in Awka.”

According to him, “The meeting ended at 10 pm that Tuesday and we all left for Enugu, and as l am talking to you the former chairman, Oye has written a petition against the acting national chairman to the (Police) Force Headquarters, Abuja and the acting national chairman has also written a counter petition to the same place.”

Meanwhile, the embattled Oye said members of the NWC that suspended him were rebels and renegades who acted in ignorance of the APGA Constitutional provision on the procedure on how to remove the national chairman.

“For you to remove a national chairman, the National Executive Committee (NEC) must meet and hold a national convention where another national chairman would emerge. Their action was illegal and unconstitutional,” he stated.

He added that six out of the 29 members of the NWC felt aggrieved out of ignorance, greed, lack of patriotism and love for the party “the two factions have agreed to work together to move the party forward. APGA would win the 2017 governorship election in the state.”