By UGOCHUKWU EKE
The former speaker of Abia state house of assembly, Rt Hon Agwu Ukakwu Agwu has said that he joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to join forces with his Abia North brothers and sisters to move the state forward.
Agwu said that joining APC is one of the ways to liberate the state from those who have been holding it down and also get its people back into the country’s political mainstream for the benefit of the state and its people.
Speaking with newsmen in Umuahia, Agwu said that he has been trying to see if his former party the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could retrace their steps for their mistakes in 2014 where impunity was the order of the day.
Agwu noted that after waiting for such a long time without any hope of changing, and his political colleagues were joining the party, he has no choice than to join them to take the state to an enviable height.
He said, “I have been resisting the urge to join the APC like my political associates were doing but after waiting for the PDP to see if they could change from their old ways of impunity, I have no choice than to join forces with them to move our state forward”.
The former speaker said that he heard like others that the party (PDP) raised a reconciliatory committee to meet with aggrieved members, “But I did not see any of them and the chairman Benson Ezem did not see me and I can tell you I don’t even know him”.
Agwu recalled that before now that party decisions in his former party were taken right from the political wards to the state level where everyone would contribute, “But now the situation is different as one man would stay in the comfort of his home to decide for the party and its members”.
He explained that the attraction for him to join the APC arose because he sees it as a party with a national outlook which has promised Ndigbo of zoning the presidency to them in 2023 when the north would have completed their tenure.
The three time Abia house of assembly members from Arochukwu state constituency noted, “My Abia north have been joining the APC in their numbers and I have no choice than to join them which has shown that the party is doing well”.
He explained that he has no political ambition for now as he is joining the party that to help them grow in the state, “However if an appointment is offered to me, I will look at it to see if am qualified for it or not before making any decision”.
On restructuring, Agwu said that it will require constitutional amendment before such could be done, stressing that Ndigbo should not be asking for restructuring from outside, “They should do that from inside by first effecting the necessary changes in the constitution which could only be done by joining the ruling party”.
He described the current alignment and realignment going on in the country as party of democratic process, “Recall that PDP had said that they are young to rule the country for 60 years but look at what happened as a sitting president lost and handed over to another president”.
Agwu continued, “This shows that the movement in the political arena is a sign that the better days are ahead and it also shows that democratically our country is developing as there is no division in Abia APC”.
“What we have is a group interest not a division and I can tell you that if there is division in Abia APC, it is not peculiar to this state alone as there are splinter groups such as N-PDP and R-APC among others at the national level”.
Assessing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Agwu said that they have done well in recent past unlike what used to happen in the olden days as they have been able to conduct credible elections in about three states in the country.
He however blamed those who work with the electoral body as being those behind corruption in the system, stressing that security men working on election duty, electoral officers and most of the adhoc staff who are busy collecting money for election fraud.
