Stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia convened a unification meeting, collapsing the two factions under the Chairmanship of Dr Kingsley Ononogbu.
The meeting took place on Saturday at the country home of Chief Emeka Atuma, a former member of the House of Representatives, at Ntalakwu in Ikwuano Local Government Area of the state.
In a six-point communique issued at the end of the meeting, the stakeholders resolved that “APC is a one united party” with Onunogbu as the Chairman and Chief Ikechi Emenike as Leader.
The communique stated that they also resolved to “remain under one united Abia APC”, with Emenike as “the only Governorship Candidate for 2023 general elections in Abia”.
It added that the meeting further resolved that all the chieftains of the party should work to achieve genuine reconciliation and unification of all the party members.
According to the communique, it was resolved that all the party faithful should work with the unity of purpose to ensure electoral victory for the party at all levels in 2023.
The resolution was signed by 15 chieftains of the party, including Emenike, Atuma, Ononogbu, Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Rep. Nkiru Onyejeocha, and Spokesman of the house, Rep. Benjamin Kalu.
Others were the former state Chairman of the party, Chief Donatus Nwankpa, former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, a member of APC National Working Committee, Chief Friday Nwosu, three APC lawmakers in the state, amongst others.
The meeting also set up a 12-member Reconciliation Committee, with Sen. Chris Adighije and Onyejeocha as Chairman and Secretary, respectively.
Emenike, who read out the membership of the committee, said it had the mandate to reconcile every member back into the fold, ahead of the general elections.
Recall that the Abia APC got enmeshed in leadership crisis in 2014, ahead of the 2015 general elections.
Since then, the party had conducted its activities, including parallel congresses, under two factional leaderships.
While one faction was loyal to Nwankpa, the other faction that produced Ononogbu in January was loyal to Emenike.
