Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state Monday called for a cordial relationship among members of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
There has been complaints by some members of the party who called themselves old APC members that they are not been carried along by the state government.
But Umahi during the party stakeholders meeting held at the Ecumenical Centre Abakaliki, noted that APC is one, that there is no old or new members of the part.
He, however, advocated for transparency and consensus in the forthcoming congresses of the state.
He said, “our party emphasises consensus but this consensus must be tested in the field because if you say that this person is the most popular and acceptable by the people, the will of the people must prevail if we want to win elections.
“Consensus does not mean that we will stay in Abakaliki and write results of those who will represent the rural people that is not consensus. Consensus is where at least 80% of the stakeholders of a particular ward agree that these people are the most popular people not when one or two stakeholders say these are the list, I don’t think this is what we are looking for.
So, we will like to have transparent congress, we will like the rural people to have their say so that our elections will be rancour free, so that there will be peace.
“There is nobody here that was not in one party before the other. So, we are all joining APC at different time. And so, there is nothing like foundational APC members, foundational PDP members, there is nothing like that.
“If APC did not need more members, there will not be doing everything to win more Governors from PDP, this is very vital and we demonstrated this in the caretaker committee and they came together, they are not working as old APC old PDP, they are working as APC and this is what we emphasised.
“We are not going to stop anybody from buying form, nobody is going to be stopped from buying forms. anybody who refused to abide by the consensus arrangement at the ward must be allowed to stand the election”.
Earlier, the state Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party, Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha urged party members to work together to ensure the success of the congresses.
He called on them to follow the right channel in tabling their grievances whenever they feel aggrieved.
