APC Rues Poor Performance in S’East, Alleges Betrayal by National Leadership

APC Rues Poor Performance in S’East, Alleges Betrayal by National Leadership

By Emmanuel Ugwu in Umuahia

A seething anger is spreading within the ranks of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-east zone following the poor performance of the party.

A highly placed chieftain of APC in the South-east, who prefers not to be named told THISDAY that “we are thoroughly disappointed” at the turn of events, adding that “accusing fingers are pointing at the party’s national leadership.”

APC not only failed to win any governorship seat in the South-east but lost Imo State and could just pick two Senate seats, one each from Abia and Imo.

He said that the national leadership of APC “conspired” to betray the party in the South-east by trading the interest of the party by making a deal with South-east governors.

According to him, the APC national leaders deliberately allowed the governors of South-east states “to rig themselves back to power” in order to make the zone less attractive for the party’s 2023 presidential ticket.

“This is nothing but struggle for 2023. If you are a politician you will understand that the South-west is already positioning for 2023.

“Their intention is to scheme South-east out of 2023 by creating the wrong impression that APC has no strong base in the zone,” he said.

He warned that “such dangerous politics will  backfire against the party  because the zone is too big to be ignored.“

The party chieftain specifically alleged that the national chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole, national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu were among those that conspired to suppress the APC in the South-east “for their selfish reasons”.

“The party’s candidates were betrayed and weakened with no support provided for them to win election,” he said.

The source noted that the interest of the APC national leadership was to extract concession from South-east governors to enable President Muhammadu Buhari get the at least 25 per cent votes in each of the five states of the zone.

Buhari scored over 25 per cent of votes in Abia, Imo and Ebonyi while he could not make it in Enugu and Anambra.

The APC chieftain disclosed that the meeting where the party was “sold in the South-east” was held in Enugu before the presidential election of February 23, 2029.

“It was at the meeting chaired by Secretary to the Government of the Federation(SGF) that the APC governorship candidates in the zone were betrayed “, the source lamented.

He insisted that despite their “ pretensions “ both Oshiomhole and Tinubu would never exonerate themselves from the betrayal of Southeast APC, adding that the governors in the zone were even aided to have their way.

“Instead of working for the success of APC candidates in the zone our party leaders even allowed the governors unfettered access to the instruments of state.

“You would have noticed that even the federal agencies cooperated with the governors in their brazen electoral malpractice during the poll,” he said.

Citing the case of Abia, he noted that it was inexplicable that “the APC governorship candidate who was more popular than other contestants was rigged out”

“If they had spent half of the energy they dissipated in Rivers and Akwa Ibom, there was no way APC would not have taken at least two states in the South East,” he fumed.

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