APC congress: Okorocha briefs Buhari on Imo crisis

Rochas Okorocha, governor of Imo states, says the “funny politics” witnessed at Saturday’s ward congress of the All Progressives Congress  (APC) across the country must stop.

Delta, Imo and Oyo were some of the states that had cases of violence and ballot box snatching.

Jeremiah Oghoveta, a chairmanship aspirant, in Delta was reportedly stabbed to death. In Imo, suspected thugs attacked the party secretariat and held many to ransom for hours.

But speaking with journalists after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday, Okorocha said internal democracy is the way to go.

“We expect internal democracy and internal democracy is the way to go. This kind of funny politics that we are playing must stop… we do not want people to carry ballot boxes and steal results. This looks so primitive,” the governor said.

“I intimated Mr. President and we will make sure that such things must stop. He spoke like the president and he will take the necessary steps to correct this in our party  APC not just in Imo state but across the whole nation, and to also make sure that there is respect for internal democracy in Imo state.”

On his part, Abdulaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara, said anybody who has a complaint should channel it to the committee that was set up by the party.

“You know in a democracy you cannot expect everything to work 100 percent. But in our region from the information available to us, everything went well in Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kano, where people expected that there may be a problem, the exercise was successful,” Yari said.

“But anybody that has complain, there is a committee set up by the national executive of the party, they should take their complains there so that they will be attended to.”