L
LequteMan
Guest
Sen. Uche Ekwunife, has much to say following her defection from PDP to the APC after her senatorial election was nullified. In an interview published on Vanguard, she poured out her heart.
"When the election was nullified, I thought that they would have used that opportunity to reconcile all the factions. I made every effort for reconciliation to happen but it was impossible. I sent a letter to the party notifying them of the nullification of my election and requesting for fresh primaries to be conducted by the party.
"I actually do not want to criticize the party but at the same time I felt that with the nullification, the party should have been proactive enough to put the house in order because there are certain things candidates or members can do, and I believe that there are certain obligations the leadership of the party should carry.
"When we had stakeholders meeting in Awka with the state chairman of the party, all other members came and at least two of those that took me to court came and I saw the vehemence. One of them said, if the Court of Appeal didn’t nullify the election that he would have nullified it in the Supreme Court.
"When I took the microphone, I said they should look at our result sheets from different wards and polling units, with that you know who ran the election and who has the capacity to win election again for the party. Some of them claiming to be candidates lost in their wards.
"After that meeting I left, that was on a Monday or Tuesday and the party sent out a paid publication that they are postponing indefinitely all activities relating to congresses and primaries until Olisa Metuh (detained national publicity secretary of the PDP) is released from detention. The publication was in almost four national newspapers.
"Even when they cancelled the election some leaders from South East called me on phone and said that since they have nullified the election and requested for fresh election, why don’t we use this opportunity to play national politics? But I was scared of what people will say, will they say that I was entering another party? So, I said let me continue with my party, but when that publication came out, I had no choice anymore than to move because this is a time bound election, if we do not do primary before Tuesday or Wednesday next week (January 19 and 20) no party will have a candidate anymore. And they said that they are postponing indefinitely, giving condition that until Olisa Metuh is released, and who knows when he will be released? At that point I had no choice anymore because I believe that Metuh’s detention has nothing to do with lawful activities of a political party. That was the last stroke that broke the camel’s back.
"When the election was nullified, I thought that they would have used that opportunity to reconcile all the factions. I made every effort for reconciliation to happen but it was impossible. I sent a letter to the party notifying them of the nullification of my election and requesting for fresh primaries to be conducted by the party.
"I actually do not want to criticize the party but at the same time I felt that with the nullification, the party should have been proactive enough to put the house in order because there are certain things candidates or members can do, and I believe that there are certain obligations the leadership of the party should carry.
"When we had stakeholders meeting in Awka with the state chairman of the party, all other members came and at least two of those that took me to court came and I saw the vehemence. One of them said, if the Court of Appeal didn’t nullify the election that he would have nullified it in the Supreme Court.
"When I took the microphone, I said they should look at our result sheets from different wards and polling units, with that you know who ran the election and who has the capacity to win election again for the party. Some of them claiming to be candidates lost in their wards.
"After that meeting I left, that was on a Monday or Tuesday and the party sent out a paid publication that they are postponing indefinitely all activities relating to congresses and primaries until Olisa Metuh (detained national publicity secretary of the PDP) is released from detention. The publication was in almost four national newspapers.
"Even when they cancelled the election some leaders from South East called me on phone and said that since they have nullified the election and requested for fresh election, why don’t we use this opportunity to play national politics? But I was scared of what people will say, will they say that I was entering another party? So, I said let me continue with my party, but when that publication came out, I had no choice anymore than to move because this is a time bound election, if we do not do primary before Tuesday or Wednesday next week (January 19 and 20) no party will have a candidate anymore. And they said that they are postponing indefinitely, giving condition that until Olisa Metuh is released, and who knows when he will be released? At that point I had no choice anymore because I believe that Metuh’s detention has nothing to do with lawful activities of a political party. That was the last stroke that broke the camel’s back.
