posted
You see my people the game continous at the expense of the people.
Thank God for Ngige, atleast the people are benefiting. This is all that matters.
For those that want to pitch allegiance to all the selfish, egocentric politicians; good luck.
All these corrupt inept politicians play on our sentiments and pitch us against each other while they steal us blind.
Day by day by respect for Ngige multiplies, regardless of the fact that he was part of the nest of killers.
Every day for the thief, one day for the owner!
These fools forget that come one day they will all leave these miserable earth. What will be their legacy? Chuba Okadigbo, Abacha, Wada Nas, etc etc are all gone. They are only remembered for the attrocities they committed.
Let us all start from ourself to effect the positive change we want. After all said and done Ngige will raise his head and say, he was able to say NO to those bent inflicting more suffering on the people!
Posts: 380 | From: US | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
Good governance attracts people just like honey attracts bees.
APGA, AD, PLP, and other parties are scrambling to get Ngige to join them.
Me think that leaving PDP will be one of the best things yet to happen to Ngige. This is what Tinubu, who led a delegation to Awka had to say...
"we are here to identify with a great brother. We are here to take up the challenge which the contradictions of the Nigeria constitution have thrown at us. We are here to join hands with our brother to oppose the forces of darkness that pulled the state down.
"Anambra State has contributed immensely to the growth of Nigerians,. They gave us the great Zik (the late nationalist leader Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe) who was the Moses that led Nigeria to independence. God gave us in Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige, an intellectual fighter. Today, you are standing on the threshold of history. The old order has been destroyed, and a new order with a man with conscience has come in Anambra State."
Ngige responded with...
"We are aware of the enormity of the situation we have at hand. We remain undaunted. Past regimes have been intimidated. The past State administrations and even the Federal Government abdicated their responsibilities. Anambra State was anomie. But we have since changed the situation."
This may well be a turning point in nija's political landscape.
It only took one man to stand up to the status quo for this to happen. How much more if we all start to effect the changes we desire from ourself. God bless Ngige, Anambra state and Nigeria!
Posts: 380 | From: US | Registered: Dec 2004
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If Ngige joins APGA, Obasanjo and other Igbo detractors will not let go. Considering the fiasco in APGA (Umehs/Okorie)Obasanjo will find a way to get at Ngige.
Are you saying that APGA has the solution to Igbo Problems? Me do not think so.
I think Ngige will be better of joining AD, atleast he will have a plat form to fight Obasanjo at his own game. Considering the fight between Bola Tinubu and Obasanjos govt.
All we want is a government that will make life better for the whole of our people. Let us all join hands and continue to pray for Ngige. I know he has done wrong by joing Uba and PDP, but we have a saying in Igbo; " oburu na mmeghe adighi, ngbaghara agaghi adi".
Kas Chineke Mezie Okwu!
Posts: 380 | From: US | Registered: Dec 2004
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AD has the same problem as APGA, there is the Akande faction and the Akinfenwa faction. Just like INEC will screw any faction of APGA that adopts Ngige, same will happen to any faction of AD that adopts him. Ngige only option is to stay put for now and fight the PDP just to buy time,that's his only hope. Don't forget he is carrying around a baggage of illegitimacy, good government or not he will have to deal with that issue at some time.
Posts: 1532 | From: USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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I think Ngige has a hard decision to make, but I think he is very much aware of the obstacles placed before him. Like I imagined he realises the dangers of joining APGA, and believe me that is exactly what the plan of the PDP is.
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Ngige joins APGA
Yusuf Alli, Tobi Soniyi, Seto Olatuyi and John Ameh
The embattled Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige, has concluded plans to join the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
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Investigations by our correspondents showed that Ngige and his associates settled for APGA after a meeting in Awka on Tuesday.
Three other parties had earlier asked Ngige to join them after his expulsion from the Peoples Democratic Party, but he asked for time to decide.
The parties are the Justice Party; the Alliance for Democracy; and the All Progressives Liberation Party.
Although the choice of the APGA was still kept under wraps, sources said the governor would make it public before Friday.
Though the source did not give details, he said the decision to join APGA was taken because the party appears to be “the most viable option at the moment.”
“Even at that, there is still this nagging worry that our detractors could pressure INEC to withhold recognition from the faction of the party sympathetic to Ngige,” the source added.
Our correspondents learnt that Ngige’s choice of the APGA might not be unconnected with the party’s plan to withdraw a petition against him at the Anambra Election Tribunal.
The National Chairman of the APGA, Chief Chekwas Okorie, gave a verbal notice of the planned withdrawal on Friday during a solidarity visit to Ngige.
The APGA candidate in the 2003 governorship election, Chief Peter Obi, had in the last one and a half years, been challenging the victory of Ngige at the poll.
Both parties had lined up about 500 witnesses, thereby, slowing down the hearing of Obi’s petition.
Meanwhile, Ngige told newsmen on Wednesday at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, that he had forgotten about the PDP.
He said, “The true situation is that we are still considering the various offers.
“But in the next few days, I will let you know publicly where I now stand.
“I have received some cards from various parties but you don’t know which card I have accepted.”
In Abuja, the Anambra State government asked a Federal High Court to stop the PDP and INEC from carrying out any act that could lead to the removal of Ngige from office.
In the suit, the government claimed that utterances by officials of the PDP indicated that the governor could be removed from office following his expulsion from the party.
The state’s Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Chief Nnoruka Udechukwu, filed the suit shortly before a letter, which Ngige wrote the PDP National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, was made available to our correspondents in Lagos on Wednesday.
In the letter, the governor described his expulsion as a “travesty of justice.”
The state government, in the suit before Justice Jonah Adah, argued that under the 1999 Constitution, no political party had any internal arrangement empowering it to remove a serving governor from office.
An affidavit deposed to by one Jeph Njikonye in support of the suit, said that Udechukwu was willing to enter into communication with the PDP on the governor’s expulsion.
The government asked the court to answer the following questions:
• Whether under the provisions of the Constitution and all other statutes in force in Nigeria, the purported expulsion of Ngige by the National Executive Committee of the PDP per se, affects the position or tenure of the said Ngige as the governor of Anambra State, so as to terminate the said tenure; and
• Whether INEC (2nd defendant), under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and under any statute in force in Nigeria has any executive or administrative authority to remove the governor of Anambra State or to perform any other like function touching upon the tenure of Ngige by reason only that the PDP or any of its organs purportedly expelled him.
The state averred that a governor once elected could only be removed in a manner prescribed in the Constitution and not otherwise.
It further contended that the expulsion of a governor from his party could not be a ground for removing him from office under the 1999 Constitution.
The state argued that no political party had any authority by its own internal arrangement to remove a governor duly elected into office at a general election under the Universal Adult Suffrage Principle.
Besides, the state wants the court to declare that under the provisions of the Constitution and all other statutes in force in Nigeria, the purported expulsion of Ngige from the PDP does not affect his position or tenure as the governor of Anambra State.
Other declarations being sought by the state are:
• A declaration that the INEC under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and under any statute in force in Nigeria, has no executive or administrative authority to remove Ngige or to perform any other like function touching upon his tenure as governor by reason only that the PDP or any of its organs purportedly expelled; and
• An order restraining the defendants jointly and severally, whether acting in person or through privies, from taking any or any further steps affecting the office of the governor based on a letter by the PDP purporting to expel Ngige, or otherwise initiating any process for his removal from office based on the aforesaid letter.
The case has not been listed for hearing.
Early on Tuesday, Ngige, in a letter, dated March 11, 2005, to the PDP National Chairman, Ali, said that his expulsion by the National Executive Committee of the party breached some sections of the party’s constitution.
He said, “With all due respect I wish to inform you that I am highly disappointed that such decision can be taken by our party’s NEC without due process being observed. By this I mean that our party’s constitution, which is the supreme law of the party was thrown over board and completely ignored.
“Mr. National Chairman, I wish to inform you that no organ of our party is allowed by our party’s constitution to ignore or violate the Articles of the Constitution. Even the highest organ of the party, the National Convention, cannot violate the constitution.”
Ngige said going by Article 16, C3 of the party’s constitution, which deals with discipline, a member of the party’s NEC can only be expelled or removed after the submission of a proposal to that effect to the NEC and the same forwarded to the Disciplinary Committee.
The governor said it was only the Disciplinary Committee made up of seven members that could pronounce a NEC member removed or expelled from the party.
He, therefore, faulted his expulsion based on the recommendation of a committee headed by the Osun State governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
Ngige said, “The Olagunsoye Oyinlola committee is not a disciplinary committee and never functioned as one, as its mandate was to ‘enquire into the causes of the crisis of the Anambra PDP and the confession of Mr. Chris Uba.”
In addition to this, he said the National Convention of the party must ratify the expulsion of any NEC member before it becomes effective.
Meanwhile, the police have increased their presence at the Onitsha Main Market and public institutions in Awka, the state capital.
The security tightening, confirmed on Wednesday by the State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kolapo Shofoluwe, was made barely 24 hours after the government alleged a fresh plot by some people to unleash terror on the state.
Shofoluwe said, “Our intelligence reports do not give signs of a possible breakdown of law and order, but we have increased our presence at the market and at other installations.
“We won’t tolerate a repeat of the November 10, mayhem. All public institutions are heavily guarded and the police are ready to protect law and order.”
Investigation by our correspondents revealed that the commissioner in charge of the command, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, on Tuesday night, sent signals to the three area commanders in Onitsha; Awka; and Nnewi; to station their men at strategic locations.
He was also said to have given them specific instructions to send more men to patrol major streets and roads in their commands to forestall a breakdown of law and order.
The Punch, Thursday, March 17, 2005
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posted
We’re waiting to take over from Ngige –Ojukwu, Umeh
Tajudeen Suleiman, Enugu and John Ameh, AwkaM
Former presidential candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, and a factional leader of the party, Chief Victor Umeh, have disimissed the reported defection of Anambra State governor, Dr. Chris Ngige to APGA as a non-issue.
Speaking in separate interviews with our correspondent, they said the party’s flagbearer in the April 23, 2003 gubernatorial election in Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, was waiting to take over from Ngige as the rightful occupant of the Government House, Awka.
Ojukwu said in a telephone interview on Thursday that Obi would not withdraw his petition at the Anambra State Elections Petitions Tribunal challenging Ngige’s victory, notwithstanding the governor’s reported defection.
Ojukwu said, “Let me make one thing clear. As far as we are concerned, APGA is in court challenging the declaration of Dr. Chris Ngige as governor of Anambra State. We are in court and we are waiting for the tribunal to deliver its verdict so that Peter Obi can take his rightful place at the Government House, Awka. I can assure you that that has not changed.”
Ojukwu said he would not comment on the expulsion of the governor from the Peoples Democratic Party because that was “entirely the affair of the PDP,” adding, however, that he was watching developments with keen interest.
The politician also said he was not bothered about the romance between Ngige and the APGA’s factional chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, saying, “You see I don’t want to react to such things; Chekwas did this, or said that and so on and so forth. I cannot be reacting to what Chekwas did or did not do. What I know is that we are waiting. Peter Obi is waiting to take his seat at the Government House. That’s all.”
Also, Umeh said on Friday that Ngige’s defection should be regarded as a “huge joke.”
Speaking on telephone, Umeh, to whose faction Ojukwu belongs, said that Okorie had “effectively ceased to speak for majority of the party members.”
He said Ngige would be fooling himself if he accepted Okorie’s invitation to join APGA because the factional chairman was on his own and was not mandated by anyone to accept the embattled governor into the party.
However, Governor Ngige on Friday confirmed his interest in APGA at a meeting with Okorie.
The governor, who received Okorie and members of the party’s National Working Committee at the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia confirmed that APGA was a party after his heart.
He categorically asked the chairman of his faction in the state PDP, Dr. Fred Oduah, to immediately start sensitizing party loyalists at the grassroots on the need for them to prepare to move with him to APGA.
The governor said, “This party is a party that will move mountains, not just in the South-East but in Nigeria as a whole.
“My chairman of the PDP and his members are here and they have heard you. I have no doubt in my mind that they will take the gospel to the grassroots so that we won’t have problems of sensitization or anything about the gospel.”
This confirms The Punch of last Wednesday that the governor had declared for APGA.
Ngige gave further credence to his choice of APGA when the NWC meeting of the party actually commenced at the conference hall of the lodge shortly after the meeting with Ngige.
As at 5.30 pm, the meeting was still in progress at the lodge, with Chekwas presiding, while Ngige sat in the adjoining office to receive other visitors.
An aide to the governor confided in our correspondent that Ngige had made up his mind on APGA.
posted
Now that the account of the root of the APGA crisis has become straightfoward, and the central issue thereof has become clear, I will give my straightfoward, uncomplicated opinion on this crisis.
Chekwas Okorie, in his capacity as the national chairman of APGA, should not have meddled directly into the local gubernatorial politics of Anambra State without going through the locals of the Anambra chapter of his party, APGA. The collective position or recommendations of the Anambra chapter of APGA should have been the paramount source of guidance for Chief Okorie in any action he took in regard to the Anambra gubernatorial politics. He made a big mistake in trying to single-handedly broker a political deal with Governor Ngige, and not having the Anambra chapter of APGA with him, in his action. That was a very big error especially considering that there are locals in the Anambra chapter of APGA whose collective political weight is as heavy as it gets. How about such locals as Odumegwu Ojukwu and Peter Obi, the APGA candidate in the 2003 Anambra gubernatorial election whose election petition is still pending in the election tribunal? I am reminded of a valid axiom of politics best asserted and espoused by the late "Tip" O'Neal, a one-time speaker of the US House of Representative and I qoute. " All politics is local". I hereby revalidate this political axiom by adding that in politics, one ignores at one's peril, local human and material resources/tool, when available.
Given the current state of things in Anambra State, with Ngige having been expelled from PDP and showing a strong intent to join APGA, a politically shrewd maneuver would be for the two APGA factions to unite immediately (with egos put aside) and receive Ngige into APGA while at the same time allowing Peter Obi's election petition case to continue in the election tribunal. This scenario, to me, looks like the proverbial "win win situation", for a unified APGA, if you see what I mean
___________________ When I heard that those vandals, the nigerian troops, had advanced to Aba. That great Biafran city. It touched my heart; not to forget! Posts: 56 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
With all the chaos and accusations going on both at the federal, state and local levels who ever has time for the poor.
I really do not envy Obasanjo. He leads a pack of corrupt people. His main achelles heels is his type of selective justice. This will haunt him both in and out of office. Because he is not cleaning the whole stable, rather he is picking and choosing who to prosecute, those he refused to prosecute will never come to his aids, because it is all about survival to them. Now that 'Ali-must-go' has started Scheming for Ngige to go, despite the constitutional implication, Obasanjo is once more leading the pack of law breakers.
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