Searching for Elusive Peace

Fri, Jul 12, 2013

By publisher

4 MIN READ

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Maxi Okwu, factional leader of APGA, initiates moves to bring peace to the crisis-torn party

|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Jul. 22, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

THE protracted crisis in the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, may soon come to an end if the stakeholders decide to embrace peace. Maxi Okwu, national chairman of the governor Peter Obi-led faction, has constituted a committee to reconcile with the Victor Umeh-led group. He said that the party will henceforth stop further altercations with other opposing leaders in order to give its reconciliation efforts the chance to succeed.

Okwu said the truth, justice and reconciliation committee headed by Ochiagha Reagan Ufomba had made significant progress in resolving the dispute. He said that the committee had met with Umeh, embattled chairman of the party. “I have taken notice that the truth, justice and reconciliation committee of the APGA leadership set up on June 10, has swung into action. Information reaching me shows that the committee led by Ochiagha Reagan Ufomba has met with Chief Victor Umeh and they are moving in the right direction. I urge its members to work assiduously along the terms of reference and the three weeks time frame given to them,” he said.

He said he will keep to the three-week unilateral truce so as not to pre-empt or jeopardise the committee’s work. “During this period, I will not criticise or condemn the leadership of our challengers. This, I do as a gesture of good faith and goodwill believing that the party needs everyone that has a positive role to play and is committed to the ideals, aims and objectives of the party. I urge Victor Umeh to exhibit similar restraint and compromise, and if possible to also desist from needless litigation.”

Ufomba said that the committee is on a tough assignment, but believed that members’ consultations so far would bring a lasting peace to the party. “We have been going round the country and meeting with the various stakeholders. We have met with Chief Victor Umeh, the national deputy leader, governor Peter Obi, and Ralph Uwazuruike, and we are in contact with Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu. We are in search of unity in our party. In the end, we will have a united, cohesive, peaceful and progressive APGA. We have talked to the aggrieved and they are opening up. A problem known is half solved. We are meeting with Chief Martins Agbaso and his brother Jude, the former deputy governor of Imo State,” he said.

According to him, it does not matter how many committees are put in place to bring about peace, what is important is the achievement of that objective, which is a united APGA. “We met Victor Umeh, the following day after our inauguration, and that alone is a remarkable success. We are very hopeful that everybody is willing to make concessions in the interest of our party, in the interest of democracy in Nigeria and in the interest of Igboland where APGA is very, very dominant. People see APGA as their religion in that part of the country and we are drumming this to their very consciousness and it is making sense to all the people we have spoken to.”

However, Umeh, who is still holding on to recognition by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was reported to have insisted that any meaningful reconciliation must be based on respect for the rule of law. He also said that the party would perform well in the Anambra state governorship election, despite the crisis rocking it. He assured the party supporters that there was no cause for alarm as APGA had the record of performing well at elections that came up during its trying moments.

“The person who is wrong is the person doing things that are contrary to the party’s constitution. We have to respect the party and the decision of the courts. What I am saying in effect is that I want everybody to come together under one leadership that made APGA what it is today. As for the coming election, I am calling on all those who are rebelling against the party to return to the party and let’s work together to produce the next governor in Anambra. Truth is imperishable; anything anybody does in life that infringes on truth is wrong, so people should go and search their consciences and examine whether what they have done is wrong or right,” he said.

John Nwosu, a gubernatorial aspirant, said the move was a step in the right direction, adding that in every human society, there is always the possibility of misunderstanding. He said since power belonged to the people, they should be allowed to elect who they feel would be their leader.