Scores of aggrieved women, yesterday, protested against alleged imposition of Chief Ikechi Emenike as Chairman of the state All Progressives Congress (APC).
The women led by Mrs. Ezinne Ude-Uduma accused chairman of the APC Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Governor Mai Mala Buni of masterminding the act in breach of laid down rules and regulations.
The women, who brandished placards with various inscriptions, warned that the party risked losing the state in the 2023 elections if it failed to reverse Emenike’s imposition.
The placards read: Buni and Akpanudoedehe Should Not Kill Abia APC; Ikechi Emenike Not A Grassroots Leader And Can’t Lead Abia APC, among others.
Ude-Uduma, who fielded questions from journalists, urged the Buni-led Committee to hold on a while and rely on the Abdullahi Adamu-led reconciliation committee report.
“Our first demand is for Buni to do the right thing and wait for the recommendation of the committee report.
“They should not impose any candidate. We voted for Chume Acho Iheanacho Obioha as Abia State party chairman and he is the one we want. He is a grassroots man instead of the other man, who we don’t know,” she said.
On what they would do if their demands were not met, she said: “What happened in Anambra will happen in Abia. It simnply means that we will lose the election. Everybody will go to other party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will take over the state again and we want APC to take over the government of the state.
“We are here because we were reliably informed that the national leadership of the party has perfected plans to inaugurate the newly-elected leadership of the party in the state. We demand that either Buni or Akpanudoedehe should address us or we won’t leave this place.
She threatened that the women would strip naked if the party inaugurates those taunting and embarrassing the state chapter of the party for identifying with the early days of the party’s formation in the state.
“We have not benefited anything after suffering for the party since 2014 when we became members of the party. We have nothing to show for the humiliation we suffered in the hands of those, who just joined and hijacked the party,” she added.
APC Director of Administration, Abubakar Suleiman, however, assured them that no newly elected State executive would be inaugurated before the party’s national convention.
