Contrary to the widespread perception of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a Yoruba party, the APC candidate for the November 16 Anambra governorship election, Senator Chris Ngige, has described the party as an Igbo party.
Ngige said this while reacting to last night’s story by News Express on the curse placed on him and APC by the Onitsha monarch, Igwe Alfed Achebe, for holding Ngige’s rally in the town on the day of the famous Ofala festival.
Ngige, in a statement this afternoon by his Campaign Organisation also insisted that he couldn’t possibly have been cursed by Igwe Achebe as he is “a man who respects the Igbo tradition and culture and holds it in high esteem and will be the last person to assault a system he is so proud of.”
Though the News Express story was based on video evidence, the Ngige Campaign Organisation in a statement put out by his Media Assistant, Mr. Igboeli Arinze, said: “We urge the public and truth loving people of Anambra State to ignore these stories making the rounds that our revered father, the Obi of Onitsha, placed curses on either the party or the candidate of the party as seen in some of the dailies yesterday. As I speak to you today, the relationship we enjoy with the Obi of Onitsha and members of his cabinet is impeccable and only those who are running scared of losing the upcoming gubernatorial seat will seek to misrepresent facts.
“The APC as an Igbo party believes that the culture of any people is their strength and will therefore not do anything that will undermine our culture as Igbos. The Ofala festival of any ancient kingdom is an age long heritage of such a people and we respect it as such.
“Concerning our holding of the flag off yesterday, we wish to make it known that the candidate of the APC, Senator Chris Ngige is a man who respects the Igbo tradition and culture and holds it in high esteem and will be the last person to assault a system he is so proud of. Therefore anybody speculating that the flag off was indeed an affront to either the authority of the Obi of Onitsha or the culture of the people of Onitsha is simply mischievous and ought not to be taken seriously by anybody. Do you think that the senator and other well meaning members of the APC who are majorly title holders in their communities would attempt to defy the Obi of Onitsha? Would the senator have organized the rally without informing the Obi of Onitsha?
“We believe that the report was simply manufactured to water down the earth shaking effects of the flag off which sent a message to the APGA government that their time is up and that change has come. It is simply a panicky reaction to the towering status of Senator Ngige, who’s rally yesterday witnessed a huge turnout that defied the heavy rainfall yesterday, despite the bottleneck situation created by the present day administration.”
Arinze also condemned the statement credited to the Governor of Anambra State concerning the rally describing it as empty rants. According to him:
“The APC never stormed Onitsha, it was neither a blitzreig nor a military operation, therefore the talk of APC storming Onitsha need not arise. We challenge the governor and his party to engage us on a campaign of issues; on security, on education, on infrastructure, on religious harmony in the state, on sports development, on water supply, on the state of Awka as a capital city. We know that they would lose all the same, but we feel that it would be more honourable if they toed this path rather than this puerile style of politics, We advise Obi, Obiano and their co-travelers to stop propagating fallacies in an attempt to hoodwink the good people of Anambra to vote for them.
“The people are wiser and they would vote for Ngige who will bring sustainable development to the state come November 16- our date with change.”
NEWS EXPRESS
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