…speaks on
Imo APC primary, reveals when trouble started
•Says a state
with professors, industrialists, top businessmen cannot easily be intimidated
by a family dynasty
•Insists Hope
Uzodimma’s victory followed due process, vindicates him
Ahmed Gulak
was former Political Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan. The
chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was the Chairman of the Imo
State governorship primaries of the party which produced Senator Hope Uzodinma
as the governorship candidate of the party.
*Gulak
Governor
Rochas Okorocha has been at war with Gulak over the conduct of the primaries.
He has rejected all other results, insisting on the one that produced his son
in-law Uche Nwosu as the party’s candidate.
In this
interview with Saturday Vanguard, Gulak bares his mind on what transpired in
Imo where according to him he escaped death due to what he said was the
desperation of some party men who insisted on having their way. Excerpts:
From all
indications Senator Hope Uzodinma is now the governorship candidate of the
party in Imo State, meaning the report of your panel was upheld by the National
Working Committee (NWC) of the party. What is your take on that?
Anxiety grips
APC govs as NWC meets
I will say
without any iota of doubt that the NWC vindicated my stand. One, I did not
appoint myself and other members of the panel. The NWC approved our
appointment, myself as the chairman and returning officer and six other members
including the secretary making us seven as enshrined in the guideline. We went
to Imo, we stood our ground, elections held, results collated and the winner
announced. We came back, in fact after the collation few others and myself
escaped from where we would have been conscripted.
The governor
himself came to take everybody in the hotel but before he arrived, about four
of us escaped and he moved other members including the secretary. He took them
to government House and they read a prepared speech declaring his son in-law
the winner of that exercise. But I had already left Owerri for Abuja where I
submitted my result. As I speak today, there is no single petition against our
report and against the result. Let us not forget, Rochas in-law was not the
only aspirant, Hope Uzodinma was not the only aspirant. They were other seven
aspirants including the Deputy Governor of Imo state. All the other aspirants,
nine of them, there is no single petition against the conduct of the election.
And if there
were grievances against the conduct of that election, the party has an appeal
panel that petition ought to have been lodged. The Appeal Panel would recommend
whether or not a fresh primary will be conducted, that did not happen. As we
speak, in accordance with the constitution and the guidelines, the result
submitted by my committee, signed by me is the authentic unchallenged report
and the NWC had no option but to uphold that report.
•Hope
Uzodimma
I feel
vindicated, the members of my committee feel vindicated. The issue of Governor
Rochas going round threatening the party is not the best for a governor. He is
supposed to be a statesman. This is his party, I understand very well that he
is the senatorial candidate of his party in Orlu, so he should not weaken the
party from within. He should call everybody; all hands must be on deck to
ensure that the party retains the state.
Shut up your
mouth, stop behaving like coward, Fayose telles Ekiti CJ
With his
influence in the party and power as state governor his candidate didn’t get the
ticket . . . (cuts in)
Well, I don’t
know Imo people very well. But I know that whoever governor Rochas wants to
push forward, decency demands that he should do so in consultation with the
stakeholders of that state. Even if he wants to put his son in-law, his
daughter or his wife, he ought to have consulted the stakeholders. No one man
can do this game of politics.
Everybody
must be carried along. I feel, may be, because he did not consult the
stakeholders before pushing his son in-law as the person to succeed him. And
naturally, people will revolt and if he has his way to impose his son in-law on
the party, what of the general election? Can he impose the candidate on the
people?
At the end of
the day the people of Imo state will decide who they will vote as governor and
don’t forget it is not a one party system, we have more than 85 political
parties with candidates. And in Imo state I have on good authority that we have
about eleven or ten political parties fielding candidates as governors. I know
that if you impose your son in-law as party candidate don’t forget that that it
is the Imo people who will decide who the governor will be. And I also have on
good authority that immediately they learnt that the NWC has upheld the result
of the Imo primaries the other candidates subsumed their ambition in the
interest of Imo state to support Hope Uzodinma. As party men we should all be
happy about that too.
That is
politics without selfishness. Rochas has spent eight years as governor of Imo
state, you want your son in-law to succeed you, you want to come to the senate
as a senator, you want your wife to be a House of Reps member, you want a
running mate who is fiance of your daughter that is another son in-law to be
deputy governor, that itself is indecent, it is immoral and the people of Imo
state may not take it likely. They are not slaves; you cannot enslave them by
making it a personal family dynasty.
This is a
state with well-educated people, well enlightened state where we have
professors in almost every family. we have business men, industrialists, these
people have stake in Imo state. So I know they will not lie low when Rochas
attempts to enslave them. He has gone on air every day to abuse me, maligning
me but I have decided to keep calm because it is an internal family matter.
However, I urge him to be a better party man. Abusing me every day on
television and newspapers will not help him, he should go and work for the
victory of his party and leave me alone.
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You said you
escaped death and was almost kidnapped in Imo, can you tell us what happened?
Naturally,
even before I went to Imo State, I was offered a private jet to take me to Imo
state but I refused because I didn’t want to be compromised. I refused the
private jet and even the tempting offer made to me, very tempting, we are
talking about two million dollars here, which I refused. Although, I tried to
persuade them that I was going to do what is needful, free and fair primaries.
Every stakeholder must be involved. Immediately we landed at the airport, that
was where the problem started. They wanted to kidnap every member and only God knows
where they wanted to take us to, which I refused. And to say the least, I pity
the Imo people but they have to take their destiny in their own hands and elect
who they feel will represent them well.
I am not from
Imo state but I am a Nigerian. There is equality and there is equity. Some of
our governors, I am sorry to say this, they take state resources as their
personal resources and we know that power is transient. After four or eight
years you are out of power and the system will get you. But haven said that, I
am happy that the party has vindicated me and I know it is the best decision
for the people of Imo state.
We are
heading towards 2019, as an experienced politician how do you predict Buhari VS
Atiku contest?
We are in a
democracy; it is not over until it is over. As a practical politician, I don’t
take anything for granted. Atiku has been on the political terrain for so long,
so he is not a novice in this game. He is experienced and he has the resources
and if you want to compare the resources he has with that of our President and
candidate, President Buhari, Atiku has more resources but the goodwill that
Buhari has, the integrity that he is known for is what is going for him. But I
will advise the party to move in and begin to consult great stakeholders, state
by state, Local Government by Local Government and I believe Buhari will defeat
him.
Okorocha
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What I am
saying is that yes the APC has grown for three and half years, the PDP has grown
for sixteen years and it is left for Nigerians to judge, do we want to go back
to the old days or we want to forge ahead with what President Buhari and his
team has tried to do? I know as a fact that we are not yet there and sooner or
later the President needs to rejig his cabinet because we need people who will
take this 2019 election as a serious project. Whoever is not a politician and
does not know what politics is all about should give way to those who can drive
this process successfully.
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