{"id":22171,"date":"2014-01-31T11:16:50","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T10:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=22171"},"modified":"2014-01-31T11:16:50","modified_gmt":"2014-01-31T10:16:50","slug":"tension-in-imo-assembly-over-forced-defection-to-apc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/tension-in-imo-assembly-over-forced-defection-to-apc\/","title":{"rendered":"Tension In Imo Assembly Over Forced Defection To APC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"messagecontent\">\n<div>\n<div id=\"messagebody\">\n<div>\n<p>Crisis is brewing in Imo state House of Assembly over an order compelling<br \/>\nmembers to defect with Gov. Rochas Okorocha to the All Progressive<br \/>\nCongress (APC) to do so or suffer for it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pointblanknews.com gathered that majority of the lawmakers boycotted the<br \/>\nsitting of the House yesterday after observing a month holiday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A top staff of the Assembly who spoke on the condition of anonymity to our<br \/>\ncorrespondent hinted that the lawmakers who managed to find their way to<br \/>\nthe Assembly resorted to having meetings in their offices depending on the<br \/>\ngroup one belongs to, before they later drove away.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The order to defect to the APC, alleged to be \u2018from above\u2019, is said to<br \/>\nhave thrown the Assembly into three camps; those for the PDP, APGA and<br \/>\nothers who have join Gov. Rochas Okorocha to the APC.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pointblanknews.com further gathered that the six lawmakers who belong to<br \/>\nAPGA are Hon. Victor Ndunagu (Mbaitoli), Hon. Dan Ikpeazu (Owerri North),<br \/>\nHon. Eudora Obiageli Igwe (Ideato North); Hon. Victor Mere (Owerri<br \/>\nMunicipal) and Hon. Chino Obioha (Njaba). They alleged that they were<br \/>\nbeing harassed to join APC. The lawmakers have since dragged the Assembly<br \/>\nto Court alleging intimidation to join APC.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ndunagu has insisted that he was elected on the APGA platform and will<br \/>\nremain with the party till the end of his tenure, stressing that he cannot<br \/>\nabandon the party that gave him mandate for the APC.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the lawmakers are said not to be happy with the governor and their<br \/>\nSpeaker, Benjamin Uwajumogu over a series of unfulfilled promises,<br \/>\naccusing the duo of enjoying themselves at the detriment of the state.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A Source told our correspondent that the affected lawmakers who are mostly<br \/>\nelected on the PGA platform have vowed never to join Okorocha to the APC<br \/>\nas they would continue to resist him since the end of the tenure is at<br \/>\nhand. Others are said to be afraid that APGA may fight to declare their<br \/>\nseats vacant. According to the source, \u201ceven a promise by Okorocha to<br \/>\nprovide legal representations for them in case APGA make a move to declare<br \/>\ntheir seats vacant could not sway the lawmakers. They no longer trust our<br \/>\ngovernor. They have been saying that Owelle does not keep promises and has<br \/>\ndisappointed them several times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One of the APGA lawmakers who may have caved in to pressure to join the<br \/>\nAPC, Hon. Innocent Ekeh (Owerri West) insisted he defected to the party on<br \/>\nhis own and was nit forced by anybody.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ekeh said he was not among those who took the Assembly to court over the<br \/>\nissue of defection, lamenting that he was not consulted before he=is name<br \/>\nwas included in the suit.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But in swift reaction to Ekeh\u2019s claims, one of the lawmakers who is a<br \/>\nparty to the suit upbraided the latter accusing him of being a sellout,<br \/>\nasking how Ekeh\u2019s name would have been included in a suit of that nature<br \/>\nif his consent was not gotten.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the days ahead, Uwajumogu who the lawmakers accuse of selling them out<br \/>\nto the governor is said to have devised measures to frustrate the<br \/>\nrecalcitrant lawmakers into joining the APC. Sources within the Douglas<br \/>\nHouse seat of power hinted that Okorocha has mandated his deputy, Prince<br \/>\nEze Madumere, Chief of Staff, Jude Ejiogu and Uwajumogu to employ every<br \/>\nstrategy to coerce more members to defect to the APC to enable the party<br \/>\nget the required majority in the Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When our correspondent visited the Assembly, lawmakers were seen driving<br \/>\nin and out of the Complex even as more than 20 policemen were stationed at<br \/>\nthe gate frisking visitors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crisis is brewing in Imo state House of Assembly over an order compelling members to defect with Gov. Rochas Okorocha to the All Progressive Congress (APC) to do so or&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tension In Imo Assembly Over Forced Defection To APC  - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/tension-in-imo-assembly-over-forced-defection-to-apc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tension In Imo Assembly Over Forced Defection To APC  - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crisis is brewing in Imo state House of Assembly over an order compelling members to defect with Gov. 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