By Hon. Kamen Chuks Ogbonna
My attention has been drawn to the above titled release from Dr Alex Obiogbolu, the Special Adviser on political matters to Governor Charles Soludo, recently in response to Senator Dr Ifeanyi Ubah’s factual statement that Anambra has not grown under the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and that time has come to rid the state of the APGA toga of deceit in order to commence an immediate advancement to meet up with other states and compete favourably with other developed cities of the world.
My response to Chief Obiogbolu is simple, allow the real APGA partymen to come forth with the rebuttal, and then we will respond.
That the few real APGA stakeholders still remaining in the party all kept mute in the face of that assertion by the Senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Ubah CON, is the clearest testament that what he alluded to , was a statement of fact already widely known in the state.
It is shocking that the government of Professor Chukwuma Soludo have been so disconnected with the masses that they are obviously blissfully unaware, that one of the most common stories out there on the streets of Anambra was the mutiny that elements of PDP successfully carried out on APGA during the Governorship election in 2021, using a diehard Atiku man friday, Professor Chukwuma Soludo as anchor person.
A mutiny that saw the successful PDP mutineers adorn the toga of APGA (of course immediately discarding Ojukwu’s picture on the uniform), and commenced an immediate onslaught against all its remaining founding partymen and stakeholders, including those that staked a lot of resources in ensuring their ascent to power.
It is indeed highly laughable that the rebuttal is coming from a character like that of Alex Obiogbolu who sabotaged the Governorship candidate of the main PDP in 2021, during that election by leaking their campaign strategies to the APGA/state government campaign Council, that was in turn also naively working hard to produce a PDP man with the party’s platform.
A cursory glance at the APGA of today tells the entire story of the pitiable desertion of the core values that was used in projecting the party into the minds of our people then. Ideals that have since become so eroded and bastardised that the other southeast states started avoiding the party like a plague while the state went on an immediate downward spiral.
Things associated with the party like the symbol of a picture of Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu as well as the usual faces of the main movers and shakers of the party have all been abandoned, discarded or they left in frustration.
The clearest display of mistrust for the few remaining real APGA party men by the mutineers was the immediate drafting of a PDP man that won his election on the platform of the PDP , to the APGA platform to become the speaker and hold forth the state House of Assembly for the mutineers.
Even the current APGA Anambra State chairman, Bar Ifeatu Obi-Okoye was a former state chairman of PDP and a core PDP man till they hatched the plot to join APGA in 2013 alongside Professor Soludo in order to manipulate the former Governor into handing power to them, a mutineering move that they successfully executed on the party
So the question is, where is APGA today and who is remaining?
Today while we are regaled on a daily basis with stories of brutalization by thugs collecting revenue for the Anambra State Government from hapless market women and keke riders ,the PDP mutineers wearing APGA uniform are the only ones currently smiling home with loots from the crudely collected revenue accruals,as well as the local government funds they divert every month, including the security vote for the state.
What manner of Dubai/Taiwan is Anambra currently undergoing under this administration? When there is not even ONE reputable construction company working in the state .
Where is the progress when all Dr Obiogbolu could list as achievements of the state government are healthcare centres that offer free antenatal care, therefore usurping the functions of elected local government chairmen.
In this same Anambra where Senator Dr Ubah as a citizen with zero executive power gathered Anambra men and women of goodwill and in 5 months delivered two state of the art hospitals in Awka and Nnewi as well as several medical equipments and ambulances during the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020.
I will rather use this medium to call on Dr Obiogbolu and his co-tavellers to make haste and unmask the toga of the decapitated APGA by rejoining the PDP back since the Governor’s desperate attempt to enter APC seems to have met a brick wall especially from well-meaning Anambrarians who have now realised their mistake and do not want his Know-It-All attitude to be exported to the current party of destination the Anambra People’s Choice (APC).