Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Oye, on Monday, apologised to members of the party who were offended in one way or the other by the flaws witnessed in the primary election process of the party.
Oye, who broke his silence on the crisis generated by the conduct of primary election, said whatever wrong that happened was highly regretted, assuring that it was not APGA’s intention to hurt anyone.
Speaking to newsmen, in Awka, the APGA boss said the party would have loved a disagreement-free exercise, but noted that as struggle among brothers and sisters, it was expected that some people would win and others lose.
Noting that they were imperfect people working in an imperfect environment, Oye decided to take responsibility for whatever went wrong.
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He said, “As a political party, we are not proud of what happened, it is a combination of a lot of factors, but I take responsibility. I want to say with every sense of responsibility that APGA regrets whatever have happened.
“For those who felt offended in any way; we are very sorry, we are not perfect people, we are human beings who operate in an imperfect environment.
“There was nothing that happened during the primary that was pre-conceived, as the national chairman of the party, I take responsibility for whatever happened. It is not in my character to trade blames.
“We sent people all over Nigeria to go and manage the process and they came back with reports and results which some people are not happy about.
“We did not skew the process to favour anybody, we regret the areas we had problems, the success of APGA was topmost in our agenda; that is why I am offering this apology. I take all the blame.
“We appeal to the aggrieved people to keep faith and continue to work with us, if you did not make it today, you can make it tomorrow, let us work for victory of APGA in 2019.”
The National Chairman, however, absolved himself from accusation of betrayal saying that all financial proceeds from the exercise was intact in the party’s account.
He said that fifth columnists and those who wished to undo the party for no just course were responsible for the escalation of the situation.
Oye continued, “The way it is being exaggerated is not what really happened, they are just taking it to an abysmal level.
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“Calling people names is not the spirit of APGA, you don’t sit in your room and begin to insult people, calling them thieves, it is not right, what evident do you have to call them thieves?
“APGA sold forms, people bought them and paid into the account of the party; the money is intact in the account for the growth of the party.
“I had no under-hand dealing with anybody; I want to be quoted, that the money is intact. It is unfair for them to claim that they were swindled, it is an irresponsible statement because the money paid voluntarily was for the services rendered to them,” he concluded.