Abia APC factions reconcile, adopt Emenike as state leader, Ononogbu as chairman

There are indications that the warring factions of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, at the weekend, reconciled and adopted Chief Ikechi Emenike, who emerged the state guber candidate from one of the primaries held in the state, and Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu as the chairman.

This was the fallout of a meeting held by the party factions and their leaders at Ntalakwu Oboro, Ikwuano Local Council, the same location where Emenike was reportedly suspended from the party in 2021. Both factions resolved their differences and forge a united front as the 2023 general elections approach.

Executives of the factional groups from the 184 state wards and 17 local councils, including the state executives who were in attendance, accepted and pledged loyalty and support to Emenike’s state leadership.

The former state chairman at the time of Emenike’s supposed suspension, Donatus Nwankpa, who was present at the meeting, urged party members to avoid divisive activities and find shelter in Emenike’s state leadership, which is the one recognised by the APC national leadership.

He said: “We have today achieved reconciliation and ended factionalisation in Abia APC, which will be followed with harmonisation and total integration of all aggrieved members.”

Former Speaker of the State House of Assembly and deputy governorship candidate of the party in the 2019 election, Martin Azubuike, who was in Nwankpa’s factional camp, read out the seven-point resolution adopted and affirmed at the meeting.

In the resolution tagged, ‘Ntalakwu Declaration,’ the reconciled party leaders and stakeholders affirmed Chief Emenike as the state leader and governorship candidate of Abia APC and Dr. Ononogbu as the state chairman.

The obviously elated Emenike, in his address, said: “The reconciliation and unity in Abia APC is the first major step in the party’s long journey towards taking over the state government in 2023.

“With this reconciliation and the consequent peace and unity in the party, the 2023 general election is as good as won by the APC, because the party has everything and reason to win the guber and other legislative offices.”