Barth Ndubuwah,Port Harcourt
Self-acclaimed factional Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Rivers State, Igo Aguma, has urged the national leadership to intervene in the internal crisis rocking the party in the state, having lost the bid to claim the title at the Supreme Court.
Aguma made this known in a press statement issued in Port Harcourt, admitting that the crisis in the party has transcended the courts. He noted that there would be calm in the party, if only the leadership of the party would wade into the matter. An indication that he has exhausted all his arsenal in court and he is now ready for peace.
He alleged that the faction of the party loyal to the leader of the party in the state and the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, is still playing politics of deceit with the matter, pointing out that the days of politics of deception are over.
“I don’t know why the Amaechi-led faction of the party continues to deceive their supporters. That was how I was once deceived in the run-off to the last general election and we were given a national embarrassment.
It later dawn on us that we were not on the ballot. We were deceived all along. The days of politics of deception are gone. We are now standing up to those on high horses to tell them no, you can’t deceive us anymore,”Aguma fumed.
He accused Amaechi of running the party like a personal property.
“You cannot run APC as if it is a personal property. You cannot run APC as if you incorporated it for you to access patronage for you and your family and a few of cohorts and friends of yours.
APC is a party all of us founded together, sacrificed for. We took bullets for APC. One person cannot come out to say people who are not okay should park out. I cannot build a house and park out of it. All of us participated in building APC. So, one man cannot wake up and say he owns the party.
We will fight for our right to live in the house. It is within him to realise that a political party is a cohabitation of different shades of opinions, characters and different expectations.
When he learns that we can now sit on a round table as we have been calling on; and more so, the issue in APC now has even transcended law court. The party is now properly factionalized. So, in addition to the law court, it is going to mean the National party must come together, call everybody together and judge all. After the talking, work the talk,” Aguma posited.
On the Supreme Court judgement,he said the court did not give judgement to sack him as the Caretaker Committee chairman of the party in the state. According to him, the apex court only struck out an application earlier withdrawn in court by his counsel.