The Southeast chapter of the Young Progressive Forum of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has threatened to mobilize against the House of Representatives speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, for appointing an opposition member as his special assistant on political matters.
The group’s leader, Paschal Otimkpu, noted yesterday in Awka, Anambra State, that “Chief Anayo Nebe from Anambra State is a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA),”saying his appointment as Special Assistant to Gbajabiamila was most unacceptable.
Otimkpu warned that APC youths in the Southeast would resist the appointment and mobilize against the speaker for appointing “an enemy of the party” as an aide. He vowed that the group would disgrace the speaker anytime he visited the Southeast if he did not withdraw the appointment.
“Nebe, a former House of Representatives member and a BoT member of APGA, worked vigorously against President Muhammadu Buhari, APC and its candidates in the just concluded general elections.
“It is a great disservice to our great party men and women who staked their integrity and name for this party. It is not possible to work with people who do not believe in your agenda. It is not about appointments as it were; it is about the Change agenda and the Next Level agenda. Nebe never believed in them; so how can he work with the Next Level team of the present administration.
“The speaker is killing the APC more in Southeast with this type of appointment, where the reward for loyalty is for another party. Without Southeast APC, Buhari would not have been the president. We are the goalkeepers of February 23 presidential election,” he added.
According to him, the brazen disregard and marginalization of core APC members in the Southeast will cause the party to continue performing badly in zone, even as he called on the speaker to look in the direction of APC faithful in the zone for the interest of the party in 2023.