APC 'poses no threat' to PDP in 2015 polls

Umuahia - The PDP chairman in Abia, Sen. Emma Nwaka, has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) would pose no threat to his party in the 2015 general elections in the state. Nwaka said this in Umuahia on Tuesday during the inauguration of a caretaker committee for the Igbere Wards A and B in Bende Local Government Area of the state. "You have all heard about APC and about their ganging up but, as the Bible says, their ganging up will be in vain because they have nothing better to offer us," he said. The party chairman said the constitution of the caretaker committee became necessary because "nature abhors a vacuum", saying the action had the nod of the party’s national secretariat. He explained that the PDP-led administration of Gov. Theodore Orji had been exceptional in its efforts to transform the state. According to him, the governor’s achievements ``surpassed the achievements of the previous administrations in the state from 1999 to 2011. The evidence is there to prove. "Before 2011, if you say you are from Abia, people looked at you with disdain. But today, Abians are respected all over the nation." Nwaka charged the 22-member caretaker committee, comprising 11 members for each of the wards, "to abide religiously by the oath of office you have taken and do not be a sell-out". He informed the members that their activities would be monitored and advised them not to hesitate to resign from the party anytime they deemed it fit. "I can assure you that the party will not frown at such a decision," the party chairman said. He explained that the decision to hold the inauguration followed reports that some disgruntled persons planned to disrupt the event at Igbere. Nwaka said the party was not using military men to chase the former ward officials, as being speculated by some, saying that the allegation was part of the design to discredit the party. He said the former officers resigned their positions and membership of the party on Jan. 10, adding that they had returned all the party’s property in their possession. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the former executive officers of the two Igbere wards had angered the party’s top hierarchy, leading to their being removed. This was after they allegedly issued a new membership card to former Gov. Orji Kalu. Other speakers at the event, including the former Vice-Chancellor of Abia State University, Uturu, Prof. Sam Igwe, admonished the party faithful to be bold and courageous. Igwe said, as members of the ruling party, they had no reason to fear. He said the state chapter of the party would resist any action that would destabilise the present state of "unity, peace, rapport and harmony in the party". In his speech, Chief Princewill Onyegbu, the Deputy Leader, Abia House of Assembly, cautioned party members from Bende against attending political meetings not convened by the party. The chairman of Igbere Ward A chairman, Chief Okwudiri Ogbodo, who responded on behalf of other committee members, pledged their loyalty and readiness to discharge their assignment dutifully.