Four state chairmen of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from South East geo-political zone have opposed the so-called ‘Unity List’ allegedly prepared by the party governors which contradicted the position of the zonal leaders.

The state party chairmen that addressed journalists at the APC national secretariat in Abuja yesterday were Dr Tony Nwoye, Enugu; Donatus Nwankpa, Abia; Eze Nwachukwu Eze, Ebonyi; and Barr. Emeka Obasi, Anambra.

They said the zonal leaders had endorsement the reelection of Emma Eneukwu as National Vice Chairman, South East; Sen. Osita Izunaso, National Organising Secretary; and Chief George Moghalu, National Auditor.

The APC chairman in Enugu, Dr Nwoye, while speaking, warned against the imposition of candidates on the zone by the stakeholders from other zones, saying that such development would cause disaffection and affect the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He described any list produced at a meeting attended by one governor from the zone as a ‘Disunity List’, advising the National Convention Committee (NCC) to allow delegates to decide the winners.

Nwoye said, “every zone, the six geo-political zones have positions zoned to them. We don’t go to those other zones and dictate who is produced there. The national chairman, for example, was zoned to south-south. We have people who are ably qualified to lead the party from the south east. So, the concentration is you adapt people from your zone. We are made up of different fabrics of people and ideas but when one leaves say north east, north west or north central, and dives into the positions of South East, it’s offensive.

“When they gather in any forum, let’s say the governor’s forum, they discuss areas that pertain to the party. When you then start to decide whom you will choose as a national vice chairman, remember every member of the NEC has a vote that affects the entire country or the entire party, including the organizing secretary but it doesn’t mean that you will leave your state, leaving the composition of your state and go to south east and say we are going to do favour to our governor and that is what we are objecting to.

“If you are not pleased with our candidate, let there be vote, let the people vote. So, we are prepared as south east with our delegates to either take on option A with the south east, or the ballot paper and demonstrate that these people are actually people that we want to lead us.”

When asked about what the south east delegates would do if the governors insisted on presenting a unity list that disqualified their candidates, Nwoye said, “you cannot have a unity list when one geo-political zone is not considered. That is a mis-normal, you cannot consider that to be a unity list. If you meet in a hall where you have just governors and south east has just one governor, and that one governor is the only opinion you took out of 5 states and you produce a list, that is not a unity list.

“In fact, that is a disunity list and the only way you can correct the disunity list is through democratic list. If that individual is popular, they show up instead of canvassing and waiting for former this and former that, making phone calls to people. If they produce this so-called unity list which I tag disunity list, it will cause Mr president the election in south east, it will cause disaffection. We are doing this not because of us.

“You cannot disregard Jim Nwobodo, Orji Uzor Kalu, Ogbonaya Onu, Chris Ngige, Martin Elechi, Sullivan Chime, Andy Uba, Benjamin Uwajumogu, and state chairmen. These are great leaders. If you produce a list that wants to affront to the needs, demands and opinions of these leaders, that means we will go back to 2015 when we were all unable to contribute to vote. These are people that their own idea with all these entrants, we are sure to win south east for President Buhari.

“Anyone putting up a unity list that fails to be all inclusive of our leaders is doing no good. In fact, it’s doing harm to the opportunities we have already created. These state chairmen have raised the status of our party in the south east. We were being called Boko haram but we stood our ground. At the point we were standing our ground, most of the people they are listing now were not there.”

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Convention: South East APC Chairmen Reject ‘Unity List’