By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State, Andy Uba, has denied the charge that his party is a Jihadist banner to Islamise Nigeria.
A former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, Dan Ulasi, had accused the APC of seeking to Islamize Nigeria through the backdoor, a charge Uba denies.
Uba, through his campaign director for media and publicity, Victor Afam Ogene, said Ulasi’s claim was intended to incite the people against the APC.
He said: “Our attention has been drawn to an arranged television interview wherein a supposed Anambra elder under the guile of boosting the sagging campaigns of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) in the state, proceeded to churn out a potpourri of deliberate falsehood, conflicting conclusions and incendiary comments, with an aim to incite possible revolt among the populace.
“Besides freely making comments on last June’s gubernatorial primaries of the All Progressives Congress, APC – which are clearly subjudice, as the issue is still under litigation – Chief Dan Ulasi, a former PDP chairman in Anambra, proceeded to accuse the All Progressives Congress, APC of an Islamisation agenda, without any justification whatsoever for that charge.
“This is in spite of the fact that the PDP primary was more rancorous in the entire state, leading to the loss of one senator, three House of Representatives members and several gubernatorial aspirants of the party.
“Hardly able to disguise his frustrations over the rising profile of the APC and its candidate, Ulasi had thundered: ‘Look at the rate at which people are joining the APC. So, you can see that there’s a different agenda. Knowing that Anambra is the centrepiece of Igboland; knowing that if Anambra falls, politically, there’s a different agenda coming up…the agenda is not just capturing Anambra, it is Islamisation.’
“Haba! Chief Ulasi. For a man who professed on the same set that he was born and raised in Kano, without any attempt by anyone to coerce him into becoming a Muslim, the recourse to inflammatory comments on the altar of politics is hardly an attribute that would be associated with an aspiring statesman.
“While we concede to Chief Ulasi his right to political party platform and support for any candidate of his choice, the sweeping categorisation of his brothers and sisters who elect to be on a different platform as agents of Islamisation, is politics taken beyond the depths of rationality and decent conduct.
“Without a doubt, we sympathise with Chief Ulasi and his ebbing platform, PDP as they appear to have left the contest for Governor Willy Obiano’s All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA and the APC.
“To properly situate the confusion swirling around him, the former PDP chairman had in answer to a question remarked thus: ‘Igbos must be at the centre. You must be in a party that has national representation, or a possibility of a national representation. That’s where you can fight. My interest(thus) would be: if Igbos are genuine in what they want to do, they either have to be in APC or PDP.’
“While we can pardon Chief Ulasi for the somersault, we harken to remind him, and his ilk, that today in Anambra, the APC is the true national political party, with one senator, five House of Representatives members and 10 members of the State House of Assembly – as against the PDP’s one senator, two House of Representatives members, and three state assembly members.
“We reiterate that at all times, elders should always strive to speak the truth, and not attempt to obfuscate same purely to achieve political goals.”
