Former minister of information, and governor of the old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo, has told members of the All Progressive Congress in Enugu State not to feel threatened by his defection to the party.
Nwobodo, a former Senator and presidential aspirant on the platform of his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party, said he did not come into the APC to take anybody’s place.
There were insinuations that some APC members in Enugu State were uncomfortable with Nwobodo’s admission into the party.
PUNCH revealed that there were reports that the said aggrieved members voiced their dissatisfaction during a recent meeting, reportedly convened by Foreign Affairs minister, Dr. Jeffrey Onyeama, where Nwobodo declared his membership of the APC.
However, dismissing the insinuations, Nwobodo, who spoke through his media consultant, Mr. Nwobodo Onyekwere, said he was not in the party to rock the boat, particularly at the state level.
The former sports minister also said he would not lord it over the party’s members at the state level.
According to Nwobodo, all members of the party in Enugu State should join hands to reposition the APC in the state, instead of nursing needless concerns over positions.
“Some unidentified “stakeholders” had allegedly voiced opposition, criticism and/or objection to Chief Nwobodo’s admission into APC.
“Nothing could be further from the truth!
“If indeed there were any such dissenting voices at that gathering, such disgruntled person(s) ought to be openly and easily identified.
“As all neutral witnesses would bear out, the whole duration of the occasion was devoid of any untoward or unsavoury incidents.
“Chief Nwobodo has left PDP to join APC, strictly on principle and for the good of his people.
“He hasn’t joined to take anybody’s place or lord it over anybody.
“There is no need for anybody or group already in the party to feel unsafe or threatened by his entry, as everybody’s preoccupation should be repositioning of the party in the state for greater goals and/or results,” Nwobodo said through his media consultant.
He disclosed that the APC leadership in Enugu State had said that measures are being taken to bring to book, persons found to be responsible for the ‘false’ insinuations that his membership was not welcomed by some sections of the party in the state.
According to him, “Those involved in this treachery know themselves and are also aware they have been unmasked”.
“Our nation needs peace, justice and progress,” he added.
It would be recalled that, while announcing his defection to the APC in Enugu on Friday, Nwobodo had said the development was informed by a desire to move Enugu State into the mainstream at the federal level.
He also noted that it was not good to be in the opposition.
“I want our people to be part of the Federal Government at the centre.
“I had a problem being an opposition governor.
“I am not coming into APC because I want anything.
“I want our people to be re-integrated and have our own share of the Federal Government resources,” Nwobodo had said.
He equally condemned the PDP, blaming the party’s leadership for allowing five governors to leave for the APC in the build up to the 2015 general elections.
In the same vein, Nwobodo recalled that even when he was in PDP, his wife, Patricia, had been an active member of the APC.
Interestingly, about 24 hours after he defected from the PDP to the APC, Nwobodo also moved from the Anglican church to the Catholic church, where he re-married his wife, Patricia, in a wedding which held at the Bishop’s Court, in Enugu.
