Putting our house in order and maintaining peace is of the highest priority, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Edozie Njoku, has said.
He said the party has no plan to suspend Anambra State Governor Prof. Charles Soludo.
Njoku told reporters in Lagos that the suspension of the party’s lone governor would have sounded good for the opposition parties.
He said: “The current peaceful disposition in APGA made it unnecessary for the party. That would have sounded good for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and probably good for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“But, if we suspend Soludo today, who is going to be the beneficiary of that misadventure? It will be other parties,” he said.
Praising the media for being objective in their assessment of the crisis rocking the party, the APGA chair said that contrary to wrong perceptions in certain quarters, “many media professionals are upright”.
He said he was encouraged by the insistence of many reporters on getting the true picture of the party’s struggles to the public.
Admitting that a lot of things happened for as long as the battle for the soul of the party lasted, Njoku restated his commitment to reconciliation, inclusiveness and forgiveness to achieve harmony.
He identified the reawakening of members’ loyalty and confidence of party faithful and supporters as the major challenge for him and members of the National Working Committee (NWC).
He said: “There is no party that doesn’t really have a problem. But, peace is crucial. We are reconciling each other and it’s not going to be easy. Nigeria is a place whereby, because of the hardship, we find out that there are so many dissenting views. And when you have dissenting views, you acknowledge that everybody has right to have his or her own views.
“Well, in politics, as you know, people must play politics. Yes, the NWC received suggestion to suspend Governor Soludo from the party. But, that was not resolved. It was discussed and it came to a point that no agreement could be reached on that.”
He noted that the NWC met to review series of reconciliation strategies, while some estranged members have sent messages of goodwill and declared their willingness to return to APGA.
Frowned at attempts by some people to pit him against the Anambra governor, Njoku added that no efforts must be spared in working together to retain the state for APGA.
