Sunday Ehigiator
The Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, Chief Ikechi Emenike were absent at the party’s stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Chairman of APC National Reconciliation Committee, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
While Kalu’s group was reported to have attended the reconciliation meeting that took place in Abuja Friday, Emenike sent a written response, explaining that his group should be allowed to face the consequences of its actions after the conduct of the congresses.
In a letter dated January 11 and titled “Interactive Session With Abia State APC Stakeholders,” Emenike acknowledged receipt of Adamu’s letter with Ref No.: APC/NRC/SEC/21/06.
He, however, said he elected to respond to the petition against his group through letter representation instead of appearing before the reconciliation committee for some good reasons.
He said: “Going through the so-called petition, you can see that the document is not really a petition but a vicious voyage to attack anybody who refused to be compromised, particularly my humble self. There is no single expression of interest by the sponsors of the said memo towards reconciliation.
“It is curious and unacceptable that you will invite me to come and sit across the table to barter words with my estranged aides and their sponsors.”
You can feel free to ask one of the signatories (Hon. Donatus Nwankpa) his role and position during my 2007 gubernatorial bid under the platform of ANPP. Hon. Donatus Nwankpa was my campaign’s director of finance in 2007.”
Emenike, who alleged that Nwankpa was a mole planted in his campaign in 2007, said: “He was rewarded with a 91-day stint as state commissioner, straight from my campaign team.
“How will any of the eminent Nigerians in your committee feel to sit in a room and barter words with their former regrettable aides. I will not. What is not good for others will not be good for me. In the circumstances you may wish to consider and accept my written representation herein as my explanation and reply to their said petition.”
On allegation that his ward executives suspended him, Emenike, Secretary of the Contact/Strategy Committee of the APC, described it as false and a forgery.
According to him, their alleged ward executive officers had since repudiated the allegation of suspending me from the party at any time.
He noted that the affidavit of “Chief Wilson Chiemegbulam the Ward Chairman of Nkwoegwu Ward shows clearly that I am a bonafide member of the APC in my ward.”
The trained economist went further to allege that Kalu “has told everybody how close he is with Chairman of the Reconciliation Committee and how he has been promised that the moon will be brought down to suit his fancy in Abia State.”
“May I also inform the Honourable Committee that His Excellency, Sen. Orji Kalu is presently working with the PDP and Abia State government on how he will sabotage the APC in Abia State while the PDP government will assist him to win his senatorial election.
“They are planning to work together to ensure that APC loses the governorship contest. He was with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu in the governor’s country home on 7/1/2022. Please recall how the same Sen. Orji Kalu and his cohorts caused the APC to lose the Aba North/South House of Reps bye election in March 2021.”
“The APC in Abia State under the newly elected State, Local Government and Wards Executives have been working hard to reposition the party. To this end, the party has set up high-powered contact and mobilisation committees of eminent persons in the Wards, LGAs and State.
“These efforts are yielding tremendous results. I urge the Honourable Committee to treat the petition as baseless and without merit and dismiss same,” Emenike explained in his letter to the Adamu reconciliation committee.
In another letter to the Adamu reconciliation committee on 14, Emenike said the group that petitioned the reconciliation committee and those that boycotted the 2021 APC Congress should therefore live with the consequences of that action.
According to him, when the elected state chairman, Mazi Enyinnaya Habor suddenly died. This same group and their sponsors celebrated. These are the kind of persons we are contending with in Abia State.
Describing Abia APC as united, Emenike said several of the other group’s executives and supporters have since embraced the mainstream APC.
He said: “For example, their State Organising Secretary, Chief Obi Aham contested and won in the 2021 state congress as Zonal Chairman for Abia North Senatorial District.
“In similar vein, their Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ben Godson, and their Legal Adviser, Barrister Menyechi Onuoha and many others are working as stakeholders within the united APC.”
Similarly, the Abia State APC Publicity Secretary, Okey Ezealu, is worried that the reconciliation committee seems to have taken a position, explaining how Emenike submitted a detailed response just as the state executive also did.
He said: “We therefore find it difficult to believe why Senator Adamu should say Emenike shunned the Reconciliation Committee. All he should do is to read those submissions.”
On his part, the party’s State Organising Secretary, Deacon Obinna Atuonwu, is surprised that Adamu did not deem it feat to invite the 27-man elected state executive of APC in Abia State.
According to him, this lends credence to ongoing boasting by Orji Kalu group that Senator Abdullahi Adamu will do whatever he has told him to do.
