The Abia State chapter of APC has distanced itself from a statement credited to a chieftain of the party, Prince Benjamin Apugo in which he said that Okezie Ikpeazu, the governor of Abia state purchased nomination form for all APC governorship candidates that contested election in 2019.
The party in a statement signed by the publicity secretary, Comrade Benedict Godson berated the elder statesman over the comment, maintaining that it is a lie and an attempt to impugn on the character of the seven governorship aspirants and Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah who later flied the Party’s flag.
“In a democracy, everyone is free to hold and express his opinion, but when such opinion is not consistent with the truth, it must be made to take its perfect position as a fallacy.
“Therefore, Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) wishes to state that the statement credited one of our leaders, Prince Benjamin Apugo by Daily Sun publication on 27/02/2020 where he was quoted to have said that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu bought the forms for all our seven aspirants in the 2019 election is a huge fallacy.
“With all due respect to Prince Apugo, he got his allegation wrong and there is no element of truth in that particular unfortunate statement that was credited to him. In fact his statement is a gargantuan lie and an act of sabotage to the party” he said.
The party also vowed that it cannot watch while the party is being torn apart by one man irrespective of his position in the society
“We as a party cannot watch one man no matter his position or capacity, stand and destroy the image of seven responsible men who in their different capacities represent a lot for their people, the party, Abians and even in Nigeria as a nation.
“Apugo making statement like “it was a clear game that Ikpeazu played with the seven APC governorship aspirants” is an attempt to assassinate the images of some of those great men who came together to contest in our party’s primary.
“Abia APC as it stands cannot afford to allow statements like the one credited to Prince Apugo to go without setting the records straight. Our society is a society that respect elders. We respect elders because we assume that every words of their mouth ought to be the truth.
“When an elder of Apugo’s capacity goes about making reckless and unguided statements like this one now, we have no option than to call him to order to avoid using his position as an elder to destroy other persons who also wish to be elder.
“We therefore which to plead with all our seven governorship aspirants to please forgive Prince Apugo on this his fallacious statement, as the party is never and can never be in agreement with such a destructive and unguided statement that’s capable of destroying our party.
“The seven gentlemen that bought the form of our great party all had intentions of contributing to the growth and development Abia State. It’s wrong and absolutely unacceptable for anyone to cast aspersions on them for simply doing all they can to save Abia State.
“Our stand is no. Prince BB Apugo, you got this one terribly wrong and we don’t agree with you because this particular statement is a monumental lie and we reject it in its entirety” the statement concluded.