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Raymond Ozoji, Awka
The immediate past national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Senior Special Adviser to Governor Willie Obiano on Political Matters Hon. Ifeatu Obi-Okoye has called for a truce over what he perceived as smear campaigns and virulent attacks on the national leadership of the party in the social media by some characters who failed in their ambitions to fly the party’s flag.
He said the dramatis personae have continued unabated to inundate social media platforms with all manner of attacks on the national leadership of the party shortly after the party’s primary elections in 2018 where they all lost out.
The position of the governor’s aide was contained in a release made available to our correspondent in Awka on Friday.
Obi-Okoye said, “Since the primaries of our party in 2018, leading to the general election in 2019, some members that failed in their ambition of flying the flag of the party have continued, though intemperately to inundate the social media with smear campaigns and virulent attacks on the national leadership of our great party.
“You will also recall that in the wake of the last party prmary in 2018, the national leader and chairman Board of Trustees, His Excellency, Chief Dr. Willie 0biano, in his characteristic show of concern for peace and reconciliation among aggrieved party members, set up a Reconciliation Committee to broker peace among both aggrieved aspirants and members of the party alike.
“On the receipt of the report of the committee, the governor immediately inaugurated an implementation committee thereto. Accordingly, and a further step to reconciliation offered to compensate these aggrieved aspirants just before the Christmas holiday with a promise to placate others soon after the general election.
“Be that as it may, you would agree with me that membership of APGA as a political party carries with it certain fundamental obligations as enshrined in Articles 7(3)(a) and 22 of the APGA Constitution 2014 (as amended) – even to the extent that members of the party should never conduct themselves in a manner that brings the Party to public odium and disrepute.”
The astute politician however pointed out that there exist certain prerequisites of membership of a political party, discipline and expectations of loyalty which he said were governed by mentorship and legacy-building.
The governor’s Senior Special Adviser on political matters stated that “it is therefore important and paramount that every member of this great party begins to see the inherent need for all of us to stick together, shun divisive tendencies, and work towards one common good of promoting at all times the greater interest of our great party – APGA.
“It is sad that the political life of some of us is characterised by mischief, deliberate malice, insatiability, and covetousness. All these for a world that is fleeting, ephemeral and vain!
“My take is that we should continue to accommodate one another despite the tendency of people saying one thing and meaning another.
“We should never seek personal vendetta; rather we should be guided by the inner conviction that we must reap what we sow, because God is never mocked.
“Let us rise up today, bury the hatchet and contribute our little quota to build peace, tolerance and sustainable development in our great party.”
