The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has re-elected Dr. Victor Oye, as its National Chairman for a second term.
The party also retained Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State as its Chairman Board of Trustees (BoT).
In a surprise move, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu Jnr., son of the late leader of the party who had earlier moved to the All Progressives Congress (APC), was also named a member of the BoT.
Oye was re-elected in a national convention of the party held in Awka, the Anambra State capital, on Friday, with delegates from all the 36 states of the country and the federal capital territory.
The convention was conducted peacefully, using an affirmative system, in which the delegates voted by voice vote.
Though there had been rancour in the party, during the buildup to the convention, with some aggrieved members of the party mounting a campaign for Oye to be stopped, but presenting acceptance speech after he was elected, Oye described such characters as ‘never-do-wells’.
He said, “We are building a new party, and we urge all to put behind them everything that happened in the past, but there are people who will never be happy with our achievement no matter how visible.
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“My business in APGA is to win election, and I have no other business as the chairman of the party than that. I urge you all to put the past behind and join hands with me. We are going to do great things in this party in the next four years, My governor, Chief Willie Obiano is here, and I am assured of his support.
“In Abuja, they are shouting next level, but in Anambra, with Obiano as the governor, they will see what next level truly is.”
Speaking on allegations that he embezzled funds belonging to the party and also extorted from aspirants during the last general election, Oye dismissed them as mere smear campaigns mounted against his person by enemies.
“Every kobo that was realized during the election is in the coffers of the party, and none of it was tampered with. We made N1.3billion during the election. What we did when we came to office was to outlaw payment of money by cash, all monies went straight to the account of the party, so it couldn’t have been tampered with.
Reacting to enquiries by journalists over the nomination of Ojukwu Jnr. as a member of the BoT after he announced his exit from the party a year ago, Oye said, “He doesn’t have to be a member of the party to be a trustee, I can not confirm to you either that he has joined our party, but he is a member of the trustees.”