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ABUJA - IKEMBA Nnewi and Chairman, Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, declared.....
ABUJA - IKEMBA Nnewi and Chairman, Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, declared yesterday that he might fight a war again should any attempt be made to steal his party's votes in next year's elections.
He spoke on a day the Southern Senators Forum renounced any agreement on power shift in the run up to the 1999 elections, and the acting chairman of the PDP splinter group, Alhaji Ibrahim Iro Safana said the 1999 agreement subsisted.
Chief Ojukwu at the launch of his party's new membership cards/register in Abuja said APGA would defend its votes with every means available to it.
His words: 'Whoever wants to steal our votes, come, we will be waiting for you. And anybody that steals the votes belonging to APGA will not reach his father's house.
'In 1970, I renounced fighting, you all know what I did when I used to fight. But in 1970 I said enough of that. I came back from exile and I promised you … My colleagues, if anybody tries to tamper with our votes this time, most certainly I will come out fighting. If we have to lay down our lives, we will fight to secure our mandate."
He said though APGA could not get the presidency in 2003, it would make it in 2007.
Also speaking, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State said he was also prepared to protect the votes of the party. He donated the sum of N2 million to the party and promised that the state would be much better than he met it.
Southern Senators disown power shift
The Southern Senators Forum has renounced any agreement on power shift in the run up to the 1999 elections, pledging yesterday to open dialogue with representatives of the Niger Delta people towards resolving the agitations in the region.
Briefing newsmen ahead of a retreat of the SSF in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, SSF spokesman, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, also spoke of tentative plans of consultations with all presidential aspirants from the region. The Yenagoa retreat, he affirmed, was an opportunity for the Southern Senators to deliberate on the region's options on the 2007 presidency.
Responding to claims by some Northern Senators and leaders of an agreement on power shift reached before the 1999 elections, Senator Ekweremadu said: 'It was based on injustice that, that decision was taken, assuming it was taken. So, I still believe that there is still injustice to the people of the South-East and the people of the South-South. Who represented the South-East at that meeting? Who represented the South-South in that meeting?
'So, if generals met and decided to favour one of their own, are you saying that is binding on me? It is still doubtful whether that decision was taken because nobody has produced the minutes of that meeting. If anybody has the document where that decision was taken, I want it to be published with the signatories.
'As a lawyer, I believe that agreements should be kept, but that agreement must be valid. It must be a legal agreement. So, let us see the agreement and look at the signatories and see the terms. That is the important thing."
Following the retreat, he said the SSF would commence consultation with presidential aspirants from the region with a view to encouraging them, adding that the retreat would be graced by political leaders from the region.
On fears about hosting the retreat in Bayelsa in the light of agitations by militants opposing government and oil companies policies in the region, he said: 'That informs the choice of Bayelsa because we decided that we need to show solidarity with our suffering brothers and sisters in the Niger Delta. So we need to go there instead of staying in all the luxuries of Abuja. We need to go to Bayelsa where we will be very close to the people of the Niger Delta because Bayelsa, as a matter of fact, signifies the struggle of the Niger Delta people.
'We are going to Bayelsa so we will be able to identify with them, get much closer to them so we can feel what they are feeling and then we will have opportunity to dialogue with them and hope that we will all work with the President of Nigeria to address what ever injustice and suffering that have been meted out to them in the course of oil exploration and exploitation. That is why we have decided to go to Bayelsa to dialogue with the people of Bayelsa in this auspicious moment," he said.
North insists on power shift
However, acting Chairman of the PDP splinter group, Alhaji Ibrahim Iro Safana, yesterday insisted that the North would not concede power to the South in 2007, saying the 1999 agreement which allowed power to rotate between North and South still remains.
Safana, in an interview with Vanguard, argued that it was ridiculous for any group to demand evidence of the agreement, stressing that if there was any formal evidence, it wouldn't have been called a 'gentleman's agreement?"
'There was a gentleman's agreement long ago, that the presidency will be rotated from North to South. And in a normal course, the South would have had its complete term in 2007, so now it just has to give way for the North. That's the simple truth.
'And now, people are asking for proof. That's nonsense. We said it was a gentleman's agreement. What kind of proof are they asking for?" he queried, adding that if it was smooth for the North to allow the South have it in 1999 and 2003, he saw no reason why the South would not allow the North have its turn now.
According to the former Deputy National Chairman (North) of the PDP, if the PDP makes the mistake of nominating a Southern candidate, the Northern electorate would definitely reject him or her. He said the Ali-led PDP had become unpopular, particularly, for running the party in a military fashion.
The PDP chieftain, who lamented that he and his other members had been locked out of their new secretariat, believed that posterity would be in their favour.
He denied that Atiku was sponsoring the splinter group or that the group was planning to form another party.