2015: APGA ’ll take Lagos, recover Imo from Okorocha –Umeh

• Says, ‘I’m under pressure to contest Senate seat’

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, said yesterday that the party would win Lagos State and recover Imo State from All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 2015 governor­ship elections.

This is even as he declared that there is pressure on him to contest Anambra Central senatorial seat, currently occupied by Sen. Chris Ngige of the APC.

Umeh told reporters in Abuja that the party’s fortunes were growing in Lagos and several other states. He predicted that APGA will defeat Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha and capture Lagos State in 2015.

Focusing on the defection of some APGA top shots in Imo to either APC or Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), the APGA boss said that he was particularly pained by the decision of Okorocha and Senator Chris Anyanwu to leave APGA despite ensuring their victories in the 2011 poll.

He stated that APGA was working towards regaining the lost grounds and adding more laurels to its kitty.

He said:  “I have been making my consultations already with major stakeholders in the state . I am not limiting my consultations to just party members because this time around, we have to be very careful on the calibre of people we give our tickets to, we are talking with critical people who will make victory possible, because Imo is a state APGA must take back in 2015.

“The electorates in Imo State are reaching out to me to come over and replicate what we did in Anambra State. I am going to Lagos in 2015 because it is available for grab.

“I feel thoroughly disappointed with the defection of Senator Chris Anyanwu to the PDP because she was denied the ticket in the PDP, she was crying and reached out to me, I thought that she was a good candidate at that time and I was proven right because she went on to win the elections. That is the type of decision I will take for APGA, if I see any viable candidate anywhere I will do everything possible to ensure that the person flies APGA ticket in an election because the most important thing is to win.

“Not only that I am disappointed that Christy went back to the PDP. I am thoroughly disappointed with those we supported for election in Imo State.  Rochas Okorocha became governor after a strenuous struggle, he went through a supplementary election, I relocated to Imo State, there I was coordinating the operations for the party. I remember that on the day his lawyer, this same Prof. Dike, who is representing Maxi Okwu now, was at the Federal High Court in Abuja urging the court to stop the supplementary elections, I was already in Owerri, I spoke to reporters on phone disassociating the party from the move.

The Ohaji-Egbema and Mbaitoli elections were later cancelled. Okorocha would have lost the election. I spoke to BBC, the Radio Nigeria, stating that we are still in the race. Look at what he has done. Apart from disappointing the people of Imo State, he took our victory to the APC.

“Another person is Eddy Mbadiwe, who I had to advise to step down from contesting for the Senate to run for the House of Representatives because he comes from the same Ideato with Okorocha. So, he stepped down, that is how he got in. Among so many others, look at all we did for APGA in Imo, all of them gone, except six members of the state House of Assembly. I feel very terrible”, he added.

On the speculation that he was planning to contest a Senate seat, Umeh stated that “if you go to my village now, you will see a big billboard put up by the youths asking me to represent them in the Senate . Everywhere you go in Anambra State, you will see such things. Recently, Ohaneze youths came to see me, they want to come and force me to run for a Senate, all the political office holders in Anambra Central senatorial had urged me to represent them in the Senate, my people are urging me to come and represent them in the Senate, but the way I do things, I take things orderly, we are now trying to disengage intruders from APGA. When we have dislodged them, we can now plan to take the party to an election, when you get these things sorted out, then you look at the situation.

“I am 52 years old and I know that I am have contributed enough to the service of our people. If not for anything, I want to create another record, to be the first senator to be elected from Anambra State on the platform of APGA, I want this party to be there forever and for it to be there forever , it is by winning elections. If the party does not win elections, it will go into extinct. So, I am under that intense pressure to contest for the Senate.

“I don’t see anything difficult about it sincerely speaking, because right now, my senatorial district is having zero representation in the Senate through Dr. Chris Ngige, his being in the Senate is a disaster for my zone. He is in the Senate, he contested for governor, he is in all the tribunals and the Court of Appeal challenging the outcome of the governorship election”, he said.