Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Abia State, Professor Greg Ibe, has debunked media reports that he entered into a secret deal with the party to be making a monthly return of N2.2 billion as condition to be given the party’s ticket.
Ibe dismissed the claims made by one of the APGA governorship aspirants, Chief Chikwe Udensi, who lost to him at the primaries as a cheap blackmail aimed at biasing the minds of voters against him.
The governorship hopeful in a press statement by his Media Team, urged members of the public to disregard the misleading claims.
According to APGA candidate, the allegation is not only untenable but a disgraceful display of the ignorance of those behind it concerning the economy of the state, wondering on what basis the party would have made such demand on him.
He said he was coming to liberate, and not to rope the state into more bondage.
It read in part: “Our attention has been drawn to a false and misleading online publication, unfortunately credited to Chief Chikwe Udensi, having as caption, ”N2.2 billion monthly settlement of APGA Leadership with Abia Money: Emergence of Ichita vindicates Chikwe Udensi,” through which the promoter deliberately deployed canard and mendacity to attempt to denigrate and disparage the person of Prof Gregory Ibe, the Abia state candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for 2023 general election, and sought to generously award some modicum of validity to his dwindling political profile, while aiming to misinform and thereby deceive the the public.
“Our immediate response to this desperate attempt by Chief Chikwe Udensi, who after coming a distant fourth at the governorship primary election of 29 May 2023 seems to tarry too long at licking his wounds, would have been to maintain silence while focusing on the weightier matter of preparations for the 2023 general election, but for the purpose of setting the records right, we hereby state as follows:
“That contrary to the deluding information contained in the false publication, Prof Ibe didn’t enter into any form of agreement, neither before, during or after the said election, to remit the sum of N2.2M to the leadership of APGA or any other group for that matter.
“That this apparently baseless, libelous and malicious accusation is at best a figment of the warped imagination of the anonymous author of the article.
“That Prof Ibe’s motive in offering himself for the job of Abia state Governor is to volunteer quality service aimed at transforming the state, leveraging his vast experience as a globally acclaimed technocrat, human capital resource expert, international development consultant and renowned academic, and not to indulge in the ignoble act of ‘sharing’ state funds.
“That, Chief Udensi, who remains a BOT member of APGA should show leadership and desist from acts reminiscent of the callousness displayed by the wicked mother in the bible, who desired King Solomon to deploy the sword in dividing and sharing her neighbor’s living child into two parts just because she lost hers in the course of the night, out of her own careless disposition.
“That Abians, and indeed the general public, are once again enjoined to discountenance this baseless accusation and rather remain resolute in their determination to ensure that old things do pass away even as a brand new Abia begins to emerge with Prof Gregory Ibe at the helm of affairs.”
