By Valentine Amanze
Online Editor
Imo State Governor and Chairman, Progressive Governors’ Forum, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has cautioned members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against violence.
The governor was reacting to shootings that led to the death of two persons at the party’s meeting in Bayelsa State last Friday.
The Governor said that going by the name and philosophies of the APC, it was believed that the members would be progressive-minded.
Okorocha advised party members not to see political position as a do-or-die affair, warning that “the ugly culture of political thuggery should remain totally divorced from APC.”
He said that who becomes the chairman in the state was an issue that would have been resolved at any level of the party hierarchy and not by violence.
The governor maintained that the APC as a party and the members must do things differently to show a good example to other parties.
He said APC as the ruling party and indeed the largest political party in the country at the moment, one must expect high demand for positions either elected or appointed within the party, stressing that such development should not give room for violence.
He urged members of the party across the states to borrow a leaf from the conduct of the APC governors across the nation who have maintained decorum and high level of tolerance even in the face of provocation by the opposition.
Okorocha assured that the leadership of the party would ensure that the Bayelsa incident does not repeat in the party.