The Igbere, Abia State, country home of former Abia Governor Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu on Wednesday played host to party stakeholders comprising four principal officers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) drawn from the 17 Local Government Areas of the southeastern state. The objective of the meeting was simple: “Taking over the seat of power in Abia State”.

Addressing the members of the party Dr. Kalu stated:

“Our meeting today involves the four principal officers of the party in the 17 Local Government Areas and the three senatorial zones comprising the local government chairmen, women leader, secretary and youth leaders. Also included as part of the meeting are the APC State Working Committee members, and our mission is to reassess the strength of the party in the on-going (voters) registration. We have swiftly done that and we are going to be taking stock and have to go and report back to the state execute council of our party. After that we shall reconvene in another two months to review what we have done and then go back to the field.

“The party is doing everything legally possible to form the next Government in Abia State. So the essence of this meeting is to review the strength of the party and to identify those areas that need to be strengthened… we shall do everything possible to win the election.

“The press men might be very surprised that they did not see the faces of our bigwigs; this meeting is purely for party officials and then people that are here and all our bigwigs were not informed this meeting. Only the working committee members were informed and the state chairman gave his blessing after the meeting, and we have reassessed ourselves and what we are going to be doing for the future of our party in the state.

“Very soon, the party leaders will also be meeting and we shall also reassess ourselves after the meeting. The next meeting would involve the entire ward chairmen, even the women leaders in the wards, and the youth leaders in the ward.”

Speaking further he said:

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“We want to make the party stronger to contest and win positions in the forthcoming elections, not only for Abians who want to contest the election, but for the President because we have assured him that we shall deliver 75% of votes cast here.

“That is why we are here. We are going to give PDP a run for their money in this state. We shall challenge them seriously. We want people to be assured that PDP will no longer be allowed to rig in this state; rigging will end in 2019,” he said.

“You saw it happen in Anambra, it was by legitimate votes. If it is by writing results, APC would have written the results; but President Buhari authoritatively said the results should not be written, that the will of the people must prevail for whoever wins the election – and you all saw that happen.

“This is beyond party affiliation. This is for strengthening the democratic process, and we can assure you that all the result writing machinery of the PDP is dead on arrival in 2019.

“During the last election, they were in control of the agencies and that made it possible for them to rig the election in their favour. This time the people will vote for those that have worked for them. They will follow APC and vote for APC because the shortest way for Igbos to sail to the Presidency is for Buhari to go for 2nd term now. If he does not get a 2nd term, then it will be very difficult for us to run for the Presidency because other people will definitely drag it with us. Even at that we have to show that we are prepared to take the bull by the horn,” said Kalu.

In his response, Dr. Omeruoha Chukwumerije, APC Vice Chairman for Abia North Senatorial zone, welcomed members for attending the meeting once again, commending the efforts of Dr. Kalu in strengthening the party in the state. He also thanked him for empowering the APC at the local government level, who he urged to work harder at their duties.