The protracted crisis rocking the Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has assumed a dangerous dimension as the former interim Chairman of the party, Donatus Nwankpa, issued a two-week ultimatum to the national leadership of the party to wade into the crisis or face the bitter consequences of its inaction.
Nwankpa, who gave the warning at a press briefing in Umuahia today, accused the national leadership of the party of complacency on the true position of things in the party’s executive in the state.
He vowed that if at the expiration of two weeks the leadership crisis was not resolved, the exco members would be forced to take whatever action that they deemed fit.
Nwankpa said he would never recognise the Chief Fabian Okonkwo-led state executive of the party, insisting that the “purported congresses that produced the exco was a charade and fraudulent.”
The former Interim Chairman maintained that the congresses were cancelled by the national supervisory committee of the party, hence, no executive could claim to have been elected.
Nwankpa accused the former Interim National Chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande; its National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; and Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, of conspiring with Chief Ikechi Emenike to foist the Okonkwo ‘s faction as the executive of the state.
According to him, over 90 per cent of APC members in the state is disenchanted with the leadership stalemate and are fast losing their patience.
He said the procrastination and delay could lead to the mass exodus of members or factionalisation and weaken the party’s fortunes in the up-coming elections.
Nwankpa therefore called on the National Chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, to make a pronouncement on the legally recognised executive of the APC in Abia State.
He said, “Anything short of that within few days, we will have no option than to take our destiny in our own hands because we do not intend to lead our teeming supporters into political oblivion.”
