Our attention has been drawn to a self exalting treatise purportedly authored by Barrister Etigwe Uwa, which despite being camouflaged as a harmless congratulatory message to Distinguished Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe on his recent inauguration to the 10th Senate, was consciously slyly embedded with innuendos aimed at lampooning our principal, Prof Gregory Ibe, Abia State Governorship Candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2023 general elections and deliberately published on some WhatsApp group pages to ridicule and embarrass him.
Being a highly disciplined, purpose driven and target focused organization within the APGA family, we would have simply dismissed the tractate as an oozing odour escaping from a perfumed whited sepulchre, or at best another self praising liturgy composed and spewed by a pretentious dis-fellowshipped holier-than-thou monk, but for the patriotic purpose of putting the records straight and by so doing eradicating the possibility of misleading the public with lies and fabrications, we have elected to make the following clarifications;
1. That the victory of our principal Prof Gregory Ibe in the 29 May 2022 governorship primary election of Abia State APGA and subsequent triumph over his three opponents turned litigants in 22 matters spanning through Magistrate, High, Appeal and Supreme Court cases, was simply a divine act of God.
2. That despite joining the race late as the fourth aspirant, his preference by a majority of the 552 delegates at the aforementioned governorship primary election is an attestation to his political sagacity and apparent public acceptance of the PGI New Abia Manifesto Blueprint, especially in the absence of competing versions of such document from the other three contestants.
3. That contrary to the fallacious and disrespectful allusion of an imagined affliction by a purported “mortal fear of fair competition”, as erroneously eluded to by Barr Uwa in his uncharitable missive, Prof Ibe is verifiably a courageous veteran of many just and free contests in the fields of sports, academics, business and politics, where he continues to compete transparently within the milieu of international best practices.
4. That the allegation of “recruiting previous SWC members to write lists and push endorsement of such lists with bribes” maliciously levied against Prof Ibe as his “modus operandi” is baseless, spurious, and fallacious, and should be totally disregarded by the public since our principal was nowhere near the vicinity of the recently held congresses, having travelled to New York sequel to the March 18 governorship election, where he is currently passionately expanding the scope of his human capacity empowerment programmes globally.
5. That for the avoidance of doubt, Prof Ibe didn’t participate in the recently concluded Congresses of APGA, either directly or by proxy due to his foreign trip and subsequently has maintained neutrality in the outcomes of the process while working with the National Working Committee to resolve contentious issues arising from the exercise.
6. That in a manner tantamount to the proverbial kettle which specializes in calling the pot black, it is this same Barr Uwa that was purported to have quarantined delegates in different hotels scattered around the state, prior to the governorship primary election of APGA, where in the company of a notable stalwart, he allegedly attempted to compromise party faithful with monetary inducement in dollars in order to secure their votes. Not to mention the purported distribution of some ‘Greek gifts’ in the form of huge amounts of money also by the learned Silk to key party officials in the city of Uyo as a way of enlisting their support. Details of these sharp practices complete with tangible evidence and names of major actors involved in the illicit transactions will be made public, if Barr Uwa sustains this spate of ill-advised insults on our principal.
7. That while not joining issues with Barr Uwa on his perceived reasons for APGA’s loss in Abia, it is common knowledge that the retrogressive anti-party act of working with his strange bedfellows ‘the infamous three musketeers’ to partner the PDP in tactically distracting our principal through multiple unwarranted litigations, coupled with barrage of vicious and ferocious media attacks, contributed in no small measure to the overall performance of the party.
8. That APGAites will not be deceived by the fake statesman mien being falsely feigned by Barr Uwa in his infamous congratulatory message since they cannot forget in a hurry how he ostensibly unashamedly de-marketed the party by personally driving the fallacious narrative of ” no guber candidate for APGA” even more than the opposition, to the extent of disgracefully remounting campaign billboards of an ordinary aspirant just few days to the governorship election. What a travesty!
9. That while enjoining Senator Abaribe in particular, Abia APGA family and the general public to discountenance the deceptive content of the said publication, Barr Uwa is hereby advised to present tangible proofs of the litany of frivolous and unfounded allegations contained therein, including but not limited to Prof Ibe’s deployment of the methodology of recruiting “previous SWC members to write lists for him and push endorsement of such lists with bribes”, and the allusion to the presence of “professors of criminality, rigging and forgery in our midst”, or be prepared to meet us in court since our lawyers have been properly briefed to commence preparations for legal proceedings in order to establish a case of libellous defamation of character against our principal.
Sleek Ogwo,ANIPR
Director, Media and Publicity,
Prof Gregory Ibe Campaign Organization
20-06-23
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