MY RESPONSE TO MY BROTHER, EJIKEME ALOZIE - NWAGBASO - BY REV. AUGUSTINE EHIEMERE

Ordinarily, I would have preferred to respond as Augustine Ehiemere, and not officially as APGA chairman who is addressing his subject, because against your claim that you are an apgan, you have proven in all ramifications that you neither love, regard, respect or belong to APGA. Simply put that you are an interloper who though desired to reap from where he didn't sow, but was overulled by God who sees beyond man.

When you signalled interest to run for House of Representatives in 2017 or thereabouts from the US, it was through a Phone call. Then you were a complete stranger to the party in Ukwa West. You were not supporting the party in your Ward let alone in the LGA as a whole. Worst still, you never paid your membership dues, possibly because you assumed that a party runs itself.

We welcomed you in line with the APGA spirit of "Onye Aghala Nwanneya" and looked forward to getting you integrated.
After informing me of your desire to run, you didn't make any further attempt to know what was happening in the party at any level; you assumed that because I'm your brother from Ozaa in Ukwa West, I would hand over the party ticket to you on a platter of gold, against the aspirant from Ukwa East.

You arrived at this fallacious assumption, because you didn't ask questions to find out who Augustine Ehiemere is. It may interest you to know that even though I'm the state chairman of APGA in Abia state, I have never for once convened a meeting of my Ward without consulting with my ward chairman, let alone convene a meeting of the LGA without my LGA Chairman. That is why in spite of the government sponsored crisis in APGA, I enjoyed and still enjoy almost hundred percent loyalty of almost all the LGA and Ward Chairmen. They know the sacrifices I have made, and they know I'm not a dictator.

You claimed that the party has retrogressed under my leadership, but you didn't state my role in that respect.

Our party began to suffer serious distractions from some sponsored moles shortly after the 2015 election, and the arrangement was to stop Dr. Alex Otti and APGA from repeating the feat of 2015 in 2019. The said moles and their sponsors made it clear that I, Augustine Ehiemere was not their target, but that I was their problem having turned down lucrative offers to work with them.

Their target was the best man for the job, Dr. Alex Otti OFR. Unfortunately, you live in the US, you do not relate to the party in Abia, yet pretend to be armed with information on the internal workings of APGA.

Let me inform you that, people flew from nowhere, benefited from Dr. Alex Otti's goodwill and emerged winners under the platform of APGA in 2015, but immediately after the election, these people ran to PDP, because Dr. Otti was not declared the winner. Some of these people ran to PDP in spirit even before Augustine Ehiemere was elected the Chairman; I mean while Dr. Otti was still in the Tribunal. How was I the cause.

You are just like those people, that was why you wanted to stay in the US and win House of Reps election in Abia, but our delegates proved that they have become wiser.

The same people like you thought that Otti was going to give them free money in 2019, and thus refused to work hard, but they were disappointed. Why blame Ehiemere for your unseriousness?

You claimed that I lack the wit, charisma and the passion to lead the party. Yes, I lack the wit to be fraudulent as you would expect me to be, I lack the charisma to cause confusion, and I lack sectional passion which you would expect me to exhibit in running the party, but I can bet that given the opportunity to lead an opposition party like APGA in a terrible state like Abia, you would be an unmitigated disaster.

Your allegation that I led the party with arrogance and disdain, manifested your disconnect from realities on ground. My brother, you do not know Augustine Ehiemere.

You alleged the following "You allowed some aspirants to be wickedly pushed away from the Party. You ignored the defeated ones; even though many were illegally made to fail to spring up favored candidates of you and those remote controlling you. You made no attempt at even reconciling aggrieved aspirants. It was that ridiculous "

The above claims showed that you're terribly dishonest and dangerously ignorant.

I challenge you to publicly mention one aspirant I played a role in ensuring that he or she was pushed a way. Like I stated above, you're ignorant of the workings of APGA and the things that played out, hence your assumption that I had the powers to lord it over the entire leadership, leaders and stakeholders of APGA and impose whoever I wanted.

For the sake of those you seek to misinform and mislead, I would want to put the record straight.

The National Leadersip of the party played leading roles and handled all critical aspects of the primaries of APGA at all levels.

It was the National Leadersip of APGA that set the guidelines for the conduct of the Primary election. They handled the screening of all aspirants. They collected Nomination Fees.
When the same National Leadersip unjustly disqualified aspirants in different state and federal constituencies, I lodged a strong worded protest letter, and reminded them that they wanted to destroy the party in Abia.
Through the letter and unrelenting efforts of Dr. Alex Otti, the disqualifications were reversed few days before the primaries. I didn't expect anyone to praise me or Dr. Otti for our efforts, because most of those affected didn't even know the effort put in on their behalf to correct the abnormalities.

After the primaries, some of the names of the winners were unjustly substituted by the same National Leadersip, I was left with the choice of running to Abuja every now and then, to go and beg for such injustice to be corrected.
Once again, Dr. Otti offered different kinds of assistance to the winners to ensure that such externally sponsored acts of injustice aimed at weakening the party did not stand. Many had their names restored, while some did not succeed. It's only a wicked soul that would accuse Augustine Ehiemere of playing any role in that. How could I have when I was not in the good books of the national leadership?

Ejike Alozie-Nwagbaso, against your unfounded claim, I, Augustine Ehiemere in conjunction with the SWC and State EXCO set up a Reconciliation Committee, to reconcile all agrieved persons. We also assured those who wanted to seek redress in court that we would give them the necessary support and cooperation.

I had no reason to dodge this responsibility, because I wan't responsible for the disaffection created ab initio.

Dr. Alex Otti who was also very angry with what happened, played his own fatherly role by also setting up a Reconciliation Committee. He also met with Candidstes and former aspirants on many occasions, during which he sued for peace and forgiveness.
You weren't aware of all these and many other challenges I wouldn't want to discuss in public. You weren't also present in any of the meetings, because you were not genuinely interested in the party, unfortunately you now want to dishonestly and dishonorably rewrite a history you have zero knowledge of.

YOUR COMING TO EQUITY WITH UNCLEAN HANDS.

Your grudge against me stemmed from the fact that I didn't manipulate the result of the House of Reps Primaries out of sentiments to impose you as Candidate for Ukwa East and Ukwa West Federal Constituency. But the question is; did you deserve it? The answer is NO.

AS a House of Reps Aspirant, you never genuinely identified with ordinary party members who would be the ones to decide your fate as Candidate.
While your opponent who lives in Ukwa was identifying with the grassroots and mobilizing, you remained in the United States, hoping that once you wire some Dollars to Augustine Ehiemere, he would take you and impose on Ndi Ukwa. Is that how it's done in the US where you live?

After purchasing the nomination form, you refused to attend your screening which was compulsory, instead you sent a representative. The screening committee from the National refused to screen you through your representative, it took serious appeal and huge sacrifice from me before they accepted.

Even after what I passed through to ensure that you were screened in so that you wouldn't turn back to accuse the party of collecting money and disqualifying you, surprisingly you stayed away from the primary election.

You made overtures, expecting me to name my prize, but when you saw that I wasn't ready to request for money from you, you got frustrated. You intentionally stayed away from the primary because you knew you were not on ground to win the election. Now, you are telling lies to the world to give the false impression that someone stopped you, sadly, some uninformed persons have already bought your false stories.

Listen, I'm not a saint, but I'm far better than most of you that unjustly want to paint me black. As a leader, I'm not afraid to face criticisms, because they are part of leadership challenges. I also know that I have not gotten all my actions right, and thus would want to learn from my mistakes and come out stronger and better, but I feel disappointed when people like you who should know better try to play on the intelligence of the uninformed with the sole aim of deceitfully attracting attention and scoring cheap political point through lies, even when you cannot be associated with any positive role aimed at moving the party forward.

My dear brother, please try as much as possible to come to equity with clean hands next time, as that is the only way to be taken seriously by discerning minds.

God bless you.

Signed

Rev. Augustine Ehiemere
State Chairman, APGA.