• Umeh anchors reconciliation on court ruling

AWAY from the rancour and mudslinging that had characterised relationship within its leadership so far, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) looks set for stability, as its court-validated national chairman, Maxi Okwu, Tuesday inaugurated a peace and reconciliation committee in Awka to reach out to aggrieved members.

Inaugurating the 14-man Truth, Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Committee, led by Reagan Ufomba from Abia State at the J. Jumac Hotels in Awka, Okwu charged the team to reach out and bring back to the fold all factionalised units.

He urged them to bend backwards and approach every member, as well as attract new members nationwide to enable them achieve lasting peace and cohesion in the once-united party.

Describing APGA as one of the landmark identities of a true Igboman, Okwu mandated the peace committee to work round the clock to let Nigerians know the truth because there had been a lot of misinterpretations and misunderstanding regarding the leadership of the party.

However, the party’s ousted national chairman, Victor Umeh, has said that obedience to the rule of law and verdict of court remained central to the return of normalcy and peace to the party.

Umeh, who spoke in an interview with journalists in Onitsha yesterday, said it would be mere wishful thinking for anyone to dispute or pretend that the Court of Appeal made a superior order in the APGA case, adding that the basis of peace returning to the party is for everybody to be law-abiding.

According to him, “the order subsists until it is vacated; this country is ruled by law. When a court makes a pronouncement, the first question one asks is the level of the court, whether it is High Court, Appeal Court or Supreme Court - and which of the orders supersedes the other.”

Stating that he was not averse to any effort by any stakeholder or concerned patriot who wants peace to return to the party, he noted that it was the reason he earlier set up a peace and reconciliation committee at the national level.

Meanwhile, chairman of the new peace committee, Ufomba, told journalists that they would perform within the specified three weeks and be ready with the report then. He assured that the team would deliver without fear or favour, stressing that since the effort was geared at restoring peace and cohesion, they would reach out to Umeh and other stakeholders.  He noted: “There can’t be two APGA, we can’t destroy it and we can’t ridicule our late leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu, by our actions or inactions. There must be concessions, no matter who leads. The committee will ensure there would be neither victor nor vanquished.”