APC Sacks Publicity Secretary For Congratulating Soludo

Anambra State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress has been hit by fresh crisis as it has sacked its publicity secretary, Okelo Madukaife, for congratulating Mr Charles Soludo on winning last week’s governorship election.

Soludo was declared winner of the election with the candidate of the PDP coming second while the APC candidate, Andy Uba, coming third.

Uba has since rejected the election results and promised to head to challenge it in court.

But local and international observers said the election was free, fair and credible saved for few hitches associated with machines deployed by INEC.

At a press conference on Sunday, chairman of the party in the state, Basil Ejidike, announced that Madukaife who was suspended in June this year had continued to parade himself as the publicity secretary of the party to the extent that he appeared on national television recently to congratulate the All Progressives Grand Alliance governor-elect, Prof Chukwuma Soludo.

“Okelo was suspended in June this year, ” he said, adding that, “We were surprised that he has continued to parade himself as the publicity secretary of the party. That ought not to be.”

Announcing the suspension he said, “On behalf of APC Anambra State, we wish to clearly state that Okelo Madukaife is no longer a member of our party and so he can’t be or function as the publicity secretary of our party in the state.”

Warning the public to be wary of him, he said, “Anybody dealing with him as a member of APC or publicity secretary of the party is doing so at their own risk.

“We wish to state categorically that as far as the Anambra governorship poll is concerned, we have not congratulated anybody.”

He added that, “But we are aware that since June, he has been raining abuses on our party.

“Okelo was suspended since June following his involvement in anti-party activities. He has been replaced by assistant publicity secretary, Nonso Chinwuba. Okelo does not belong to the party.

“But I need to see what exactly Ejidike is saying before I can make one word. Ejidike is on his own. The whole chapter has discovered that he is a sellout who collected a lot of money to sell our primaries out.

“I don’t want to miss one word in what I’m replying, that’s why I said I would want to see what exactly he said because we have been managing him for the sake of our own image,” Madukaife said.