Sen. Rochas Okorocha (APC-Imo) has urged the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership to do the needful to ensure sanity in the party’s Imo chapter.
Okoracha, a former governor of Imo, currently representing Orlu Zonal constituency of the state, stated this to newsmen shortly after he led some members of Imo APC Pioneer Group to a meeting with the party`s leadership on Wednesday in Abuja. He was accompanied on the visit by Sen. Ifeanyi Ararume, Mr Ogumbo Okechukwu, Mr Daniel Nwantor, Chairman Imo APC, Mr Jude Ejeogu and Mr Pascal Obi among others.
“We are here because of what is happening in Imo, primarily, things are not going right in the state as it affects the party. There has been an issue about the party’s state elected executive, the executive have not been allowed to function. We are here to bring the party’s attention to it and we know that our party is a law abiding one and a party of rule of law.”
“We have come to ask the party to obey the court judgment that established the right executive in the state which has not been upturned by any court,” Okorocha said.
He said there was need for the party’s leadership to put things right before its forthcoming congresses. He said that the court had upheld the Daniel Nwafor-led executive as the authentic one, saying that not even the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the APC could reverse that.
He warned that since the court judgment still stood, anything done in the state without the Nwafor-led executive, especially with regards to the coming congresses would be illegal.
“We have come to remind the party as a law abiding one to please obey the court judgment and ensure that it stands, we have come a long way in building this party. I was one of its founding fathers, I was the only elected governor from the South-East that made up this party at a time its name was like a taboo in the region,”.
“The party should be seen to remember those who founded it, we joined the party because of justice and it must be seen to prevail all time at all levels,” Okoracha said.
He, however, expressed optimism that the party`s leadership would give its Imo chapter, adequate attention to address the situation. He said that there was presently nothing like membership revalidation and registration going on in the state, saying that the needful must be done.
He, therefore, advised that the party`s leadership to first and foremost, allow its stakeholders in the state to register as most of them had not been given the opportunity to do so. He wondered how the party could be planning a congress without carrying its stakeholders along in the state.
“As far as we are concerned, there is nothing like that taking place, there is no membership registration in Imo. People want to register, there is an elected executive supported by the Court of Appeal judgment who are supposed to be in charge of the delegation to conduct the congress.”
“We are here to advise the party to do the needful and obey the court judgment so that the world will not see our party as one that doesn’t obey court judgment or respect court judgment.”, he said.
