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But reacting on the Nnewi gathering addressed by Ojukwu, the Ohanaeze in a statement signed by the secretary general, Professor Ben Nwabueze, after a meeting yesterday in Enugu-Ukwu in Anambra State, said it had no hand in any plan to swear-in Ojukwu as beign speculated by some people.

The statement stated that: "Let it be known that the group which called itself by the name 'Igbo leaders' which summit has Ojukwu as leader and held its meeting at Nnewi on Sunday 25, 2003 is not part of the Ohaneze nor in anyway related with Ohaneze."

The group, however, said the reported story that said Igbo people plan to declare Ojukwu as president is a rumour
http://www.thisdayonline.com/news/20030526news01.html

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Originally posted by Ednut:
Ohanaeze leaders make sense here, and we need to be careful about who we root for this time. My support for APGA has more to do with the criminal governors of Igboland in PDP than with its presidentail candidate.

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Nwabueze explained that the resolution passed at the meeting did not dispute the right of Ojukwu to form the organization, adding, "it only stated that the Summit or Assembly was not part of Ohanaeze and was not connected with Ohanaeze".
http://www.thisdayonline.com/news/20030620news09.html

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COMMUNIQUE OF THE NATIONAL WORKING COMMITTEE OF THE ALL PROGRESSIVES GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA); HELD AT CHELSEA HOTEL, ABUJA, ON WEDNESDAY, 30TH APRIL, 2003

1. APGA hereby expresses sincere and heartfelt appreciation to the Nigerian electorate for the overwhelming support given to it in the National Assembly, gubernatorial and presidential elections, nationwide.

2. We commend the courage and forthrightness of the local and international observers in pointing out the massive irregularities and mindless fraud that characterized the general elections in our dear fatherland. We however condemn the Commonwealth Observer team and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for compromising the truth when Nigeria is at the cross-roads. We salute National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the European Union (EU), the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) among others, for a job well done.

3. However, APGA deeply condemns the barefaced electoral robbery perpetrated by the incumbent, in collaboration with the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and their cohorts, nationwide.

4. APGA rejects, ion the strongest terms, the entire results of the General Elections so far held as it remains a subversion of the true wishes of the Nigerian people.

5. APGA particularly condemns the most irreligious and inflammatory utterances of Primate Sunday Mbang, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN); calling for the arrest of ANPP’s Presidential candidate, General Mohammadu Buhari, thus endorsing plain fraud. We hereby call for his immediate resignation or removal by CAN, as he has become manifestly partisan on the side of falsehood and injustice, thus, betraying the very tenets of Christianity and his devout position.

6. APGA strongly condemns some officials and members of the party who in certain states of the federation have unilaterally and without reference to constituted party authority rushed to congratulate the very electoral fraudsters who stole the victory of our great party. Such persons have no place in a progressive party and they must face disciplinary action.

7. We condemn the continued intimidation of members of the opposition parties who express their democratic rights to legitimate protest. We wish to reaffirm that while APGA remains law abiding, we must continue to protest lawfully and non-violently against all electoral fraud until they are redressed.

8. As law abiding citizens members of APGA will subject themselves to the processes of the Election Tribunals, as established, in the hope that the Judiciary will avail itself of this last chance to acquit itself of any complicity in the attempts of the incumbent Government and INEC to undermine our nascent democracy and the wishes of the Nigerian electorate.

9. We condemn the premature and indecent celebrations of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); only one day after the swearing-in of the Election Tribunals, signaling a presumption that the tribunals are a mere formality designed to legitimize the illegality of the said electoral fraud.

10. We decry the illegal unleashing of the Nigerian Military on innocent citizens under a strictly democratic civilian exercise, to coerce compliance to the wishes of the incumbent Government.

11. However, we hereby call out all members and lovers of our great party (APGA) to come out massively and vote for our candidates in the State Houses of Assembly elections on Saturday, 3rd May, 2003.

12. APGA pledges to remain the beacon of hope to the Nigerian populace who have demonstrated their desire for genuine democracy, peace and progress in our beloved country.


SIGNED:
CHIEF CHEKWAS OKORIE ALH. (DR) SANI A. SHINKAFI
(OJE-OZI NDIGBO) NATIONAL SECRETARY
NATIONAL CHAIRMAN

PRESS RELEASE


APGA DENIES PLAN TO SWEAR-IN OJUKWU ON MAY 29

Our attention has been drawn to the very malicious, wicked and mischievous banner headline of the Tribune Newspaper of Monday 19 May 2003 captioned “ANPP, APGA plan to Swear-in Buhari, Ojukwu”. I want to inform the Nigerian public that as a law abiding national political party registered under the Nigerian Laws, we have never contemplated, let alone planned any Presidential inauguration of our Presidential Candidate at Awka or at any other place in Nigeria for that matter on the 29th of May 2003 as published by the Tribune Newspapers.
Right from the very beginning of this charade that is called 2003 general elections, APGA has not been found wanting in condemning the criminality of the entire exercise. It is on record that every line of action proposed by APGA has been done in most responsible manner within the ambit of Nigerian laws. We have filed petitions at various Tribunals, in spite of public skepticism about the independence of these Election Petition Tribunals. We have been very open to dialogue on the matter of the discredited general elections as the authorities in Nigeria may confirm. We will continue to support and participate in any action designed to promote democracy, justice, equity and fair play.
APGA will never yield to intimidation, blackmail, coercion and harassment. We condemn the Tribune newspapers for trying unwittingly and most stupidly to create panic in the country, thereby contributing to the heating up of an already charged political atmosphere.

Similarly, APGA wishes to condemn the unnecessary and unintelligent broadcast of the Inspector General of Police regarding his so-called discoveries of intentions by some Nigerians to disrupt the May 29 inauguration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
As a key planner in the opposition camp, APGA is not aware of and shall not be party to any subversive activity that will distabilise the Nigerian nation. The cause of democracy shall never be served by engineering and sponsoring disorder. As a patriotic National Party, all legitimate legal and constitutional methods, including dialogue and negotiations with the relevant authorities are being explored and shall continue to be explored by APGA to resolve the political impasse in Nigeria.
It is regrettable that the person of the Inspector General of Police could make such reckless statement on public television. Wisdom demands that the Inspector General of Police should move discreetly and with the dexterity expected of a man in his high office to burst the purported plot to scuttle the inauguration of Mr. President, on May 29 without sending panic across the nation.

If indeed the Inspector General of Police is in possession of the facts as he made the public to believe on public television, one would have expected him to move diligently to arrest the culprits along with their sponsors since he claimed to have information on the planned mayhem. But if it is on mere speculation that the Inspector General of Police based his broadcast then it was most unfortunate, tactless and irresponsible.
APGA believes that this avoidable broadcast will have the unfortunate effect of frightening away many Nigerians and indeed foreign dignitaries who had meant to grace the occasion of the inauguration of Mr. President.

Nigerians have not forgotten that in our recent history, government planned bombings and attacks had been perpetrated as a ploy to arrest, detain, and sometimes assassinate perceived political rivals. We hope that Nigeria is not gradually sliding back to that unfortunate era which we thought that the re-emergence of democracy in our body politick should bury permanently.

Finally, we wish to advise Mr. President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to exercise maturity, sagacity, broadmindedness, liberal attitude and magnanimity in defusing the tension that has continued to thicken in the country. What conventional wisdom demands is sacrifice, concession and patriotism in handling the volatile and sensitive situation such as confronts the nation at this time. No amount of propaganda can take away the incontrovertible fact that the just concluded general elections in the country were characterized by unprecedented electoral fraud, manipulation, violence and outright falsification of results that altogether border on sheer brigandage such as have never been witnessed in the political history of Nigeria.


CHIEF CHEKWAS OKORIE
(OJE-OZI NDIBO)
NATIONAL CHAIRMAN, APGA.





PRESS RELEASE

FG RELEASE ALL POLITICAL DETAINEES

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) calls on President Olusegun Obasanjo to release all political detainees immediately. It is inappropriate, absurd and preposterous for the Federal Government to detain many political opponents across the country on spurious allegations in order to silence the voice of dissent.

It is also unfortunate that security agents who ought to protect life and property are being used to frustrate political opponents who had been massively robbed of their victories in the recent “general elections” by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It is obvious that democracy cannot thrive under a reign of terror. President Obasanjo must know that he is setting a wrong precedence in electioneering, which if not checked could truncate our nascent democracy.

Good governance and dynamic leadership are necessary condition for electoral victory worldwide which the Obasanjo government failed to provide in the past four years as he fiddled around while the nation burns in poverty, insecurity, strikes and disease.

APGA won the elections in the South East and other parts of the country which were upturned by the INEC in connivance with the PDP. We want to state categorically that APGA has a sacred duty to defend and uphold the people’s mandate. It is a task that must be done in national interest.

APGA will not tolerate an illegitimate government. Thus, the PDP celebration of a pyrrhic victory smack of arrogance and recklessness bothering on gross insensitivity to our national pride and dignity.

While we reject the elections conducted so far, we call for the immediate resignation of INEC Chairman, Abel Guobadia, the Service Chiefs, the Inspector General of Police and President Obasanjo.

APGA insists on an interim government on May 30, 2003, as the panacea to the current political impasse. We strongly believe that a four-year single tenure for the positions of the President and Governor will drastically reduce the unprecedented electoral fraud Nigerians were subjected to in the recent “general elections”.

As a responsible party, APGA believes in the rule of law. We urge the Election Petition Tribunals to justify the confidence Nigerians reposed in the judiciary. Just as the entire world observed the “elections”, the world is equally watching the Tribunals. Members of the Tribunals must resist executive interference and partisan feelings as the image of the judiciary and indeed, the country is at stake. To do otherwise is to court disaster which could adversely affect our fledging democracy.

APGA strongly condemns Aviation Minister, Kema Chikwe malicious statement in THE WEEK magazine of May 12, 2003, that Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu “is not serious” and has “no footing in this present political equation”. Ostensibly, no right thinking Nigerian could ever make such mischievous statement to Dim Ojukwu, the APGA Presidential Flagbearer who implemented the best campaign that drew millions of supporters to all APGA Presidential rallies. A man of enormous influence, Dim Ojukwu is an embodiment of patriotism and vision. His integrity, tenacity and sagacity of purpose always endeared him to Nigerians who he selflessly offered himself to serve. Ojukwu is a strong factor in the current democratic encounter. Anyone who neglects him does so at his or her own peril. Dim Ojukwu is destined to heal Nigeria. We call on Nigerians to support his divine and national mandate.


SIGNED:
ALHAJI (DR) SANI ABDULLAHI SHINKAFI
NATIONAL SECRETARY, APGA.

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