APGA faction presidential candidate Okorie names running mate

The crisis that rocked the All Progressives Grand Alliance took a new turn on Wednesday when the group’s presidential candidate, Chekwas Okorie, unveiled his campaign council, with less than 23 days until the general election.

Okorie, the party’s founding national chairman, had emerged as the party’s presidential candidate in the primaries organized by the Edozie Njoku-led National Working Committee.

The PUNCH reported that in December 2022, the Victor Oye faction announced a 1,579-strong campaign council led by Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo and his predecessor, Willie Obiano.

Both Oye and Njoku have claimed leadership of the party.

At the unveiling of his campaign council, Okorie also named a nurse, Hadiza Muhammad, as his running mate and an investigative journalist, Jonathan Elendu, as director general of the campaign council.

According to him, APGA has only one presidential candidate and national chairman.

However, he expressed surprise that the Independent National Electoral Commission had not yet recognized Njoku as chairman, despite a Supreme Court ruling dismissing Victor Oye.

While Okorie urged INEC to do the necessary, Okorie noted that the 2023 general election, for which more than N350 billion in taxpayers’ money had been appropriated by the National Assembly, should not be put in avoidable jeopardy.

He said: “It is up to INEC to ensure that Nigerians do not turn a blind eye to hold the electoral body responsible for cutting short the 2023 general election by deliberately excluding the legally recognized APGA from participating in the election.

“Should this unfortunate and forewarned disaster befall the nation, the repercussions will threaten the survival of Nigerian business. May God forbid.

“Njoku, the National President of APGA, has proven himself to be a man of immense faith and conviction as well. Without this special quality of his, I wouldn’t be here today as the presidential candidate of a political party I founded 21 years ago.

“It is by faith and belief that all true leaders and members of APGA today believe that despite the machinations and intrigues of men that have led to what is clearly a belated entry into the democratic contest for the 2023 general election.

“APGA will surprise its traitors by the outcome of its performance in the upcoming elections by the special grace of God. Again, it is written that the last shall be first.”

The vice-presidential candidate, Hadiza Muhammad, noted that with her nomination, the party has proven its respect for gender equality in the Nigerian political experiment.

Elendu said in his acceptance speech that Nigeria must be rescued from the consequences of an unworkable link that has made the development of the country and its peoples almost a mirage.

“From the remote deserts of Sokoto to the savannas of Borno and Adamawa, the forests of Oyo, the rivers of the Niger Delta and the land of Alaigbo, there are incredible resources that make our country’s devastating poverty an abomination.

“Nigeria is indeed on the threshold of history. Will we continue with a federal democracy that has stunted our country’s growth? A system that professes the safety of life and property as the most important task of government, yet knowing that it is unworkable in principle,” he stated.