National Chairman of the All [Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Umeh, has said former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, resigned his position as Chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT) and leader of the party because he anticipated to be appointed minister by the Federal Government.

He also said because of that he prompted four APGA national legislators to decamp from APGA and join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Umeh spoke to newsmen at Aguleri where the Catholic Bishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, presided over a high mass on the invitation of Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano.

He said the party set up a constitution review committee to make the constitution accommodate the office of the leader of the party and that the committee had concluded its work.

Umeh added that APGA has prepared for a convention where Obi’s appointment will be sealed and gave him an estimate of what it will cost the party but he never provided the money. Instead, he was said to have parried the convention to his successor, Obiano.

Visibly angry about the development, Umeh said “it is very wrong and very unfair that the leadership that stood behind him through his travails, including getting him elected as Governor, and having failed to do the needful and pursued other things and did not succeed to send us a letter of resignation blaming the leadership of failing to ratify his position”.

Umeh said Obi submitted the letter after getting a job from Ifeanyi Ubah as South East coordinator of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) and attended their rally on Saturday.

Umeh said this necessitated his resignation for him to assume that office.

According to Umeh, Section 25 of the party’s constitution does not allow any one to hold two positions; one in the government and another in the party.

He also alleged that this was why Obi did not pay attention to the convention which was planned before he left office.

Another reason why Obi did not pay attention to the party convention is that he believed that with an Enugu High Court ruling sacking Umeh’s leadership of the party, he (Umeh) was gone forever. On the four federal legislators of APGA that defected to PDP, Umeh said knew they were holding secrete meetings with Obi before their defection and that after that, one of them, Afam Ogene, has come to apologise to him and secretary of the party.

On the relationship between APGA and President Goodluck Jonathan, Umeh said he has made it clear that the party supports Jonathan and will not field a Presidential candidate.

But he also said there will be proper alliance between APGA and PDP, the type the defunct Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) and National Party of Nigeria (NPN) had in the Second Republic so that APGA will not lose totally.

In fact, he continued, APGA has formed its own Jonathan campaign wing known as ‘Join Jonathan Journey’, which will be launched on Tuesday.

And reacting to Umeh’s comment, Obi’s media aide, Valentine Obienyem, said even till today, “Obi remained the face of APGA and a consistent APGA member”.

“If Obi had not stayed in court to regain his mandate, to fight his impeachment, to seek tenure interpretation, there would have been no APGA today.

“If he had not supported the present Governor under APGA, the party would have ceased to exist. He saw the party to its second tenure in Anambra and in the end handed over to an APGA elected Governor.

“During electioneering, Anambra people, including Umeh, said APGA won because of Obi’s work in the state.

“Even when he was asked by President of Nigeria to leave the party, he refused, the most recent being appointed a minister because he refused to join another party,” Obienyem said.

However, factional Chairman of APGA, Maxi Okwu, also faulted Obi on his resignation as leader and chairman of the party’s BoT.

But Okwu agreed that “Obi just met up with reality, as his group never regarded him as APGA leader”, adding that his appointment as BoT chairman was illegal and contrary to the party’s constitution.