The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has claimed the insinuations in some quatres that former Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha, brought APC to the South East “is not true”.
Ngige who was speaking at his country home Alor, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, on the rotation of presidency claimed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) during formation had an agreement on the rotation of power.
On how APC was brought to the South East, the minister said; “We formed the APC and I am still alive. I was then a Senator.
“We started the discussion even before I went to Senate in 2011. We started the discussion for the formation of APC between ACN and CPC. After the election, ANPP joined us.
“Then, I now brought APGA with Okorocha. Today, some people falsify issues to say that Okorocha brought APC to the South-East. It is not true.
“I and Ogbonnaya Onu were the fathers of APC in the South-East. I specifically brought in Okorocha, Annie Okonkwo and Osita Izunaso. They are the three leading people we brought into the formation committee.
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“After formation, we set up a 32-man Interim Management Committee, serving like working committee members. We were drawn from ACN as senior partners with six governors, ANPP had three governor’s, CPC one governor, APGA one governor and then, DPP with one Senator and some House of Representatives members.”
Speaking on power rotation agreement in the APC, he said; “I was the secretary at our first convention and I took all the minutes.
“We had an agreement that our flag-bearer would come from the North and after North, it would go down to the South.
“So, those who are talking today were not there when this agreement was made. But was it written down and signed by politicians from both sides? No.
“But we had minutes of the meeting. They are there. It was agreed that there would be a movement between North and South.
“As we were doing the convention and filling in offices, we narrowed down our candidates to about two or three.
“But, among the candidates, General Buhari was topping. All of us from the ACN caucus had agreed that he was our candidate.
“CPC had agreed that he would be their candidate. ANPP was split into two. So, when we went to the presidential convention, he emerged with a wide margin. That is the truth of the matter.
“So, we expect that our national chairman this time around will come from the North and our Presidential candidate will come from the South and it is left for the Southerners to decide the zone it will go among Southeast, South South and South West but for equity and moral ground, the South East should, being the only yet to produce the President since 1999”.
