The instruction by the State leadership of Ndi Igbo in APC, a political group under the All Progressives Congress Party has put the leadership of the group in Ajeromi /Ifelodun Local government area at daggers drawn. Chief Casimir Uche Amagba, the first tenure serving-out chairman of the group in Ajeromi, whose four-year tenure expired, said there is a crisis in the group.
He pointed out that there was an instruction from the state that all chairmen or coordinators whose tenures have expired would continue in office until the state leadership conducts a uniform election. This will make all the tenures synchronize to avoid staggered elections since all of them did not assume office at the same time.
According to Chief Uche Amagba, the state said, every coordinator or chairman whose local government has conducted an election that produced a chairman or coordinator should hold on till other local governments have done the same so that all elections can synchronize. Amagba revealed that the state-wide instruction is what is still keeping him and his excos in office.
“This is the reason why I am still here as a chairman because we are still waiting for the state to give us guidelines on how to transit and we cannot flout the orders of the state or act independently. We are the first set of elected officers”, he said.
However, this instruction from the state echelon of the party doesn’t seem to have gone down well with some Igbo party faithful at the local government level who have been having meetings on the ground that Amagba and his excos have served out their first tenure and must submit themselves to re-election if they want rather than continuing as if it is their group hence they went on to announce the dissolution of the executive.
Amagba explains more: “The whole thing started more than a month ago when some group of persons who called themselves “Igbo leaders” started having kangaroo meetings against Ndi Igbo in APC. I never knew where they were coming from, although we believe we are one until I began to see questionable movements which got me confused”.
He said further, “These people began to align with such people as Hon Nkem Igwe, former Vice Chairman of Ajeromi local government, who joined forces with the present Igbo Councilor, Hon Ifeoma Anene, Chief Silas Ogbuehi, and Cy Eze. They all joined hands against my leadership having meetings without my consent as the chairman of the group.
Hon Chief Mrs Ifeoma Anene, Deputy Leader – Ajeromi/Ifelodun Legislative Council, the only Igbo, holding political office in the LGA was contacted to get her side of the story, she denied any rift between the Igbos in APC, in the local government.
She summed up the whole situation this way.
”There is no problem among the Igbos especially Igbos in APC, Ajeromi LGA, So, we have been working together with our party and the people we are working with have never denied us especially what is due to us. But as I am talking to you now, the leadership of Igbos in APC Ajeromi had a meeting a week ago and concluded that the tenure of the sitting chairman, Chief Uche Amagba has elapsed.
The leadership came to this conclusion last week Thursday because I was on assignment in far away Ghana on legislative matters. The leadership decided to dissolve the cabinet till further notice. Thereafter it was agreed that another meeting should be held to fine-tune ways of conducting another election for new executives for the group.
This is where we are now because the local government election is fast approaching and there is a need to put our house in order so that it will not affect the Igbos. Igbos in APC in Ajeromi are for APC and we have been for APC and ‘We Will Still Remain with APC’, whatever happens”, she said.
We have promised that we will always do our best to make sure that our voices are heard everywhere for good in every election and this has been our aim. We thank God that everything has been working accordingly, especially now that all the leaders in Ajeromi/Ifelodun of Ndi Igbo in APC, have come under one umbrella. I am praying and believing that it should remain like this for now”. She noted.
Hon Anene said the people are under one umbrella already and nobody is quarreling with each other but the only thing is that the Saturday meeting was called by the past chairman whose seat was dissolved on Thursday. He called the meeting on Saturday for the reasons best known to him, but all the people who attended the meeting were our members. We are all under that umbrella of Ndi Igbo in APC and even if they do the election, the former excos may return if the people feel that they served them well or another person will take over if that is the wish of the people.
I was informed also that after the dissolution of the past excos, another meeting was scheduled for Thursday when the leadership will make decisions about the conduct of the election and modalities.
The leadership of the group includes Igbo people in APC who have served the group in different capacities and formed the Apex leadership of the group. Some of the members include: former vice chairman of Ajeromi Local Government, Hon Nkem Igwe, a former Chairman of the group, Elder Iwunna, Barr Oshimiri, also, a former vice chairman-Chief Silas Ngozi Ogbuehi a current serving Special Adviser to the Council Chairman and Chief C.Y Ezeh.
Hon, Chief Ifeoma Anene still believes that Ndi Igbo in APC is still under one umbrella as there are no two factions of the group. We are one, although they have Igbo Community but the group is not strictly for APC. It is a socio-cultural organization of all Igbos but Ndi Igbo in APC is purely only for APC and that is why Ndi Igbo in APC is different and unique.
On the issue of an alleged attack by unidentified assailants at the recent meeting of Ndi Igbo APC.
Hon, Chief Ifeoma said, “No, I don’t think it has anything to do with any election or anybody, but from what they told me, there was no attack because attack goes with a weapon. But from what I was told, it was just some area boys that came in to disrupt the meeting, there was nothing like an attack based on what they told me.
“I was told the area boys came and asked, ‘What are you people doing here, we don’t want any meeting here, una wan share rice when hungry dey everywhere, make una give us our own rice and the people because of fear ran away.
Obviously, by this, they are hungry area boys that wanted their share of the rice that dispersed the meeting”.
Asked if the conduction of the election will calm the nerves of different persons and keep the Igbo umbrella calm in Ndi Igbo in APC. And her answer was yes.
Chief Casimir Uche Amagba, further narrated his side of the story and the genesis of his leadership:
We organized ourselves and conducted a peaceful election in Ajeromi in which Chief Ngozi Ogbuehi and CY Eze were part of the electoral umpires and I contested alongside other four notable Igbo candidates like Ugochukwu Nnadi, Dr. Nmadu, and others and had a landslide victory to lead for a four-year tenure.
The four-year tenure according to him is what has been extended now, “Though we agreed that the tenure- ship should be four years, even though there was no constitution to that effect, nor any by-law.
At a time though, this group was inaugurated in all the 57 local governments and LCDAs as a way to mobilize Ndi Igbo all over Lagos for the party in Lagos state. However, it just happened that we were the first people to emerge through that election.
Continuing, Amagba said, However, I didn’t want to start monitoring who is doing what because the sky is too wide for anybody to fly. One day, they took the meeting to Nkem Igwe’s residence and she called me to attend the meeting, I said no, that I was not part of the meeting. But she suggested that I should use it as an opportunity to visit her as she would not have invited me if the meeting had been held outside her home.
I attended the meeting and all that was on the agenda was that Uche Amagba must step down because they wanted to dissolve the exco. I asked them which table are they dissolving and Hon Nkem Igwe said the table would not be dissolved until there is instruction or order from the state to do that. I managed to remain calm until they were through though I was not comfortable staying in their midst. Since then they have been calling me for meetings which I ignored.
Last week Thursday, they called a meeting and I was not there and they said that they’d dissolved my house and my excos were not there. Some bags of rice were given to us by the Council chairman in December; I went to get the rice and brought it to the venue of our meeting to share last week. I sent the circular for the meeting to all members and for the first time since I have been holding meetings in that school thugs invaded and disrupted the procedure.
One of the thugs said they were sent to beat and disperse us but my presence disarmed them and they could not execute their plans. They even seized the rice, but later brought it back. Sincerely, I am surprised”, Chief Amagba explained.
Concerning the attack, he revealed that the identities of some of the attackers were recognized by some of the people who attended the meeting. Incidentally, he is also the Chairman Management Committee of that school.
He added that the case in question is like that of a witch who cried at night and the baby died in the morning. According to him, since some people are bent on stopping his tenure as the chairman, they obviously may have a hand in the attack. Adding that the opposition they formed was to attack him.
In his move to ensure that the party hierarchy is informed about what is going on, Chief Amagba said he had already informed the local government party chairman Chief Samuel Adeyemi, who insisted that Uche Amagba remains the only authentic chairman of Ndi Igbo, APC, in Ajeromi. Amagba said he has not reported the matter to the party leadership in the state because he would not like to override the authority of the local government.
Amagba reported that the Party Chairman said that the group is not a town hall meeting and that anybody can wake up to dissolve the exco even though Igbos’ did not vote for the party in the last election. For him, with this squabble, the party hierarchy may not recognize the relevance of the group in the party and this will affect the people with genuine intention for the party.
According to him, “What they tried to do is a threat to my life but I am not afraid of them and their clandestine plans because I am not doing anything contrary or am I operating an illegal structure. Our activity is only to use our structure to mobilize Igbo membership for our party, APC”, he concluded.
