JUST IN: APGA suspends Anambra factional Speaker, two others

The All Progressives Grand Alliance has suspended the factional
Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Ikem Uzoezie, for
alleged anti-party activities.

Others also suspended were Messrs Hartford Oseke and Victor
Okoye.

The State Chairman of the party, Chief Norbert Obi, stated this
at a press conference at the party’s secretariat in Awka on
Thursday.

Obi said that after reviewing the circumstances surrounding the
impeachment of the Speaker of the House, Rita Maduagwu on Tuesday,
it had become expedient to suspend the key player in the saga “to
save the party from self-destruction.”

Uzoezie had led 19 other members of the House on Tuesday to
impeach Maduagwu and assumed the speakership of the House.

But the APGA state chairman of the party, at the press
conference, said “the party would not condone such internal
wrangling.”

His statement read in part: “Recall that on Tuesday, 13th
November 2018, some Honorable members of the All Progressives Grand
Alliance in the Anambra State House of Assembly, during their
plenary session, attempted to impeach the Hon Speaker of
the House, Rt Hon Barr Rita Maduagwu, following a motion moved by
the Hon member representing Agutata II Constituency, Hon. Ikem
Uzoezie, which was seconded by the Hon member representing Ekwusigo
Constituency, Hon. Onyebuchi Offor.

“It is the position of the party in Anambra State that the
attempted impeachment was not necessary.

“Granted the fact that we had problems during the just-concluded
party primaries in the state, this is not enough to pull the party
down, more so when the party has inaugurated a reconciliation
committee to look into the grievances of the aggrieved aspirants
and members of the party.

“Every right thinking Igbo man knows that APGA is not only a
party but a movement for the actualization of Igbo agenda in the
Nigerian polity. It will amount to shooting oneself in the leg for
any Igbo man to pursue the destruction of APGA.”

The state chairman enjoined aggrieved members of the party to
sheathe their swords, adding that failure to do so would amount to
“setting our house on fire because of a rat.”

He added, “It is therefore the wish of the party that all
members of APGA behind this unfortunate plot should retrace their
steps in the interest of the party.

“We assure them that whatever is their grievances, they should
be addressed to the satisfaction of all since this is a family
affair.

“Be that as it may, the three ring leaders of the attempted
impeachment saga, namely, Hon Ikem Uzoezie, Barr Hartford Oseke and
Hon Victor Okoye are hereby suspended from the party pending the
time they will appear before the disciplinary committee of the
party for further action.”