Ahead of the July 31 All Progressives Congress (APC) congresses, Imo state former governor Rochas Okorocha and his group may have lost out in their bid to control the structure of the party in the state.
Okorocha had in a recent meeting with the APC Caretaker and Extra Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), asked the party leadership to recognise the leader of his faction, Daniel Nwafor, as the authentic chairman of APC in the state.
This is as against the committee’s continuous recognition of the Marcel Nlemigbo-led faction which also enjoys the support of the state governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma
Okorocha who was at the meeting with Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, former Secretary to Imo state government, Sir Ejiogu, Hon. Ugonna OzuruIgbo, Hon. Paschal Njoku and other stakeholders, insisted that Dan Nwafor must be accorded full recognition as APC Chairman in Imo state as pronounced by an Owerri High Court.
Okorocha warned that even as the party has scheduled its nationwide congresses, no congress will be adjudged valid in Imo state if it’s not conducted by the Dan Nwafor led Caretaker Committee
But sources close to the APC Caretaker Committee confirmed that the committee secretary, Senator John AkpanUdoedehe, told the former governor at the meeting to go home and settle with his state Governor Hope Uzodimma, who he said is the leader of the party in the state.
Blueprint learnt that the secretary had told the Imo West Senator and his team that it would not be proper to take the party structure away from the sitting governor, even as he acknowledged and recognised the contributions of Senator Okorocha in the formation and growth of the APC in the South East.
“The caretaker secretary only told former governor Okorocha the party’s position in Imo state when he led a delegation of Imo APC pioneer stakeholders to a meeting at the party secretariat recently in Abuja.
“Okorocha had among other things demanded that the APC recognise Nwafor as party chairman in Imo, citing a yet to be vacation High Court ruling. But as expected the CECPC secretary told him to go home and make peace with his governor.
“Like in other states where there are similar crisis, Okorocha was made to understand that there is no way the committee will hand him over the party structure in his state mat the expense of a sitting governor. It is not possible.
“Similar positions were also taken in states like Kwara and Rivers, where the governor, AbdulRahman Abdul Razãq and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi control the party structures as leaders of the APC in their states,” he said.
