Imo APC: You’re out to create mischief, confusion, Nlemigbo accuses Chuku, party’s screening c’ittee chair
…Insists on Ibezim’s candidature
Anthony Iwuoma
Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Imo State chapter, Prince Marcel Nlemigbo, has described as ‘misleading’, the recent press statement credited to Dr. Lawrence Chuku, chairman of the committee that screened APC aspirants for last week’s senatorial by-election for Imo North (Okigwe) Zone.
Nlemigbo added that Chuku’s statement was an act of mischief and confusion by those, who may be in pursuit of ulterior benefits.
Chuku had said at the a press conference that his committee in discharging its duties, had disqualified six aspirants, among whom was Sir Frank Ibezim, the eventual officially recognised winner.
However, in a statement on Wednesday signed by Cajetan Duke, Director General, Imo APC Media Centre, the state party chairman outrightly rejected Chuku’s claims, saying it was afterthought and a worthless exercise sponsored by desperate politicians.
He regretted that a man like Chuku, could become a willing tool in the hands of political desperados at the expense of his hard earned reputation.
Nlemigbo told pressmen in Abuja that the screening committee chairman acted out of ignorance, as his committee has since ceased to exist, having concluded its assignment.
According to him: “Chuku’s action smacks of ignorance, because the lifespan of his committee terminated immediately after the screening exercise and, as such, has no more legitimacy to speak on party directives.”
The chairman informed that prior to the conduct of the party’s primaries, the National Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, through the APC National Deputy Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, made public the list of 11 screened and cleared aspirants for Imo APC and wondered where Chuku and his collaborators were at the time.
Speaking further, Nlemigbo queried why it took Chuku more than three days after the primary election and 10 days after the screening exercise to come up with his disqualification remix, which he said was ostensibly orchestrated after his preferred aspirant could not make it at the party primaries.
He accused Chuku of being recruited to disparage the integrity of the APC candidate and discredit the process of his emergence but failed in the quest.
Nlemigbo insisted that Chuku, lacked the legitimacy and powers to speak on behalf of the party, since he is not its official spokesman.
The state chairman maintained that Ibezim remained the party’s candidate for the October 31 Imo North Senatorial Zone by-election, having emerged victorious at the concluded party primary election.
He urged the party faithful and the general public to disregard the purported disqualification story by those he said were political gangsters and agents of destabilisation, expressing confidence that Ibezim would emerge victorious in the forthcoming election.
