The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has described the participation of the governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha in the merger talks that produced the All Progressives Congress (APC) as ridiculous and unfortunate.
At a press conference in Abuja yesterday, the party said Governor Okorocha acted alone because “APGA is not in the merger. We were never consulted by anybody before such statement of our involvement was issued.”
A member of APGA’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and former Minister of Health, Dr. Tim Menakaya, who addressed the media, said, “The merger of political parties, where the parties are expected to lose their identities, cannot be an ad-hoc arrangement or decision of one person,” adding, “We have nothing against the formation of any mega opposition party.”
Menekaya said that the decision to initiate such a discussion was vested in the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the merging parties “and shall be ratified by their national conventions and communicated to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) through a letter jointly signed by the national chairman, national secretary and the national treasurer of each of the merging parties.”
Dr. Menakaya reiterated that in the case of APGA, this did not happen, and stressed that “the issue of merger with other political parties is not on the agenda of APGA for now. Our concern at the moment is to restructure, nurture and build a strong party capable of winning elections across the states of Nigeria.”
He called on all party members and the general public to disregard the misleading inclusion “of our party in the ongoing merger talks of opposition parties. It is not on the agenda of the party for now.”
He disclosed that because of the seriousness of the issue, the party was consulting with its elected and other prominent members and would take a decision on the matter at the appropriate time.
Okorocha, who was elected on the platform of APGA, was at the 10 opposition governors’ meeting, on Tuesday in Lagos where the decision to form APC was ratified.