Hon. Ifeatu Obiokoye, the Special Adviser on Political Matters to Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State, has cautioned aggrieved members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, to stop their smear campaigns against the leadership of the party.
The governor’s aide said that members of the party who failed in their ambition to contest various positions on the party’s platform have continued to inundate the social media with smear campaigns and virulent attacks on the party’s leadership particularly its national chairman, Victor Oye.
Obiokoye, in a release, said Obiano as the national leader of the party, set up a reconciliation committee to broker peace among the aggrieved aspirants and other members and that on reception of the reports, the governor further inaugurated an implementation committee.
“Accordingly, and a further step to reconciliation, Obiano offered to compensate these aggrieved aspirants just before the Christmas holiday with a promise to placate others soon after the general election,” he said.
Obiokoye however, reminded the aggrieved members that membership of the party carries certain fundamental obligation as enshrined in Article 7(3) (a) and 22 of the APGA Constitution 2014 (as amended) even to the extent that members of the party should never conduct themselves in a manner that brings the party to public odium and disrepute.
The governor’s aide urged party members to be disciplined, stressing that they should also imbibe some lessons on political party membership and requisite discipline and expectations of loyalty to a political party which are governed by the twin pillars of mentorship and legacy-building.
According to him, “This is true as faithful party loyalists hardly confuse their membership rights with their ambitions and self-value. True party loyalists never seek power within the power obstinately, knowing that the political party remains supreme.
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“True legacy-building for any party loyalists entails living beyond idiosyncrasies and marshal tendencies as two things distinguished a faithful and loyal party member namely, your patience when you are not getting your ambition pushed through and your attitude when you get everything going your way.
“It is therefore important and paramount that every member of this great party begins to see the inherent need for all of us to stick together, shun divisive tendencies, and work towards one common good of promoting at all times the greater interest of our great party, APGA. It is sad that the political life of some of us is characterized by mischief, deliberate malice, insatiability and covetousness.”
He appealed to the party members to work together and continue to accommodate one another despite the tendency of those saying one thing and meaning another.
‘We should never seek personal vendetta, rather we should be guided by the inner conviction that we must reap what we sow because God is never mocked. Let us rise up today, bury the hatchet and contribute our little quota to build peace, tolerance and sustainable development in our great party.
“In doing this, we must also endeavour to respect and tolerate one another, be altruistic and self-giving and pray for the spirit of God to rule our lives and make us better people,” he said.
