TheHILL | POLITICS | AUGUST 6.
Following the drama and assertions which trailed the Saturday, July 31 supposed Ward Congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom, the member who represented Ikono State Constituency between 2011 and 2019, Rt. Hon. Victor Udofia, has assured that the Party will get over its present state of disharmony.
The former Lawmaker said this in an interaction with newsmen in Uyo, on Thursday, August 5, 2021 when he gave his side of the Saturday event.
“I differ that there was congress. There was no Ward congress. Congress has a process. First, you must receive the national committee that is coming to do the congress; they will speak to the people; introduce themselves through the State chairman of the party and respond to the people’s demands but that wasn’t done”, he explained.
“I am a member of the State caucus in the APC and I can tell you authoritatively that there was no Congress or election. We saw no material as expected. In fact, as at 48 hours to the time of the election, the State Party secretariat was locked. There was no staff in that place so how can you say there was congress when the office was not open for people to go in,”he stated.
Udofia further said, “I want to also challenge anybody who says there was congress in the state to present a clip showing how they received the committee from Abuja, how the committee addressed the people, how they shared the congress materials and which local government the materials got to because we did not see the election materials and congress could not have been done under cover”, he stressed.
Adjudging the entire play-out of the Saturdays’ event as a shortfall of what was expected, the two-time member of the State House of Assembly called for the understanding and patience of aggrieved members while appealing to defiant members to speak the truth for the growth of the Party.
“I would appeal to those aggrieved to calm down and see what the party leaders would do. Those who claimed that there was congress should say the truth so that we can help the party grow. I will also appeal that the leadership of the Party at the National level to speak to those at the State to do the right thing. Congress is the foundation of every party. Once the congress is right, the party is right and vice versa”, Udofia maintained.
The former Chairman, House Committee on Security, Youth and Sports however, assured that things were going to return to normalcy in no time.
“APC is going to put their House in order. I give you my word. After rain, comes sunshine. Its better it happens now so that we can be able to put our house in order.
“Crisis is inevitable but the most important thing is the ability to communicate a way out of it…when there are issues, then you have something to put on the table. There’s crisis everywhere including the PDP, but what matters is for you to be able to reconcile and get things right”, he posited.
In a related development, the Rt. Hon Victor Udofia has criticized the make-up of the newly inaugurated Maintain Peace Movement (MPM), describing it as a right thing, done the wrong way.
The former parliamentarian based his criticism on grounds that the selection process was highly politicized.
“They are doing the right thing on the wrong platform. It was a PDP issue. What they would have done would have been to make it an all-inclusive affair. The APC, Labour Party, PDP, should have been involved. There are Commissioners in Lagos State that are not APC and same in Rivers State who are not from PDP. I expect the State government to adopt that approach because when you become Governor, you become Governor of the people not Governor of a Party, and that applies to being the President of a country. The Party is just a vehicle that brought you in so, MPM is a right thing but the issue is that it is wrong because it is not all-inclusive”, he expressed.
