Ezeoke made the assertion in his opening address at the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting yesterday in Maiduguri, Borno State.
The chairman was clearly referring to Governor Isa Yuguda who dumped the ANPP for his former party, PDP after he was freely given governorship ticket by ANPP in 2007 when his party denied him opportunity to contest.
Ezeoke noted the party would not condone those who see it as dumping ground to launch their aspirations only after failing to clinch tickets in their parties.
The ANPP Chairman had while admitting that the party was passing through turbulent times said the NEC meeting would be strategic to deliberate on issues that would affect the growth and ideological development of the party and the nation. Before his remark, a one-minute silence was observed in honour of late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua.
Ezeoke said he was more comfortable with having three state governors who were more effective rather than having nine governors that would only be helping to organise meetings, causing divisions or discussing how to decamp from the party.However, the statement did not go down well with most of the participants as they booed him and shouted, “No, no, no.”
The national chairman also expressed disapproval to the manner in which flag bearers, including presidential candidates were adopted on consensus. He said it was regrettable that party refused to accept his suggestion that the era of consensus be stooped so that presidential aspirants would tour the entire nation and canvass for votes before being voted in primaries. He maintained that the American system, which Nigeria copied from, made it mandatory for every aspirant to visit all states of the federation to declare his intention and be voted for by members of the party in that state; the result of which, he noted, would serve as cumulative for any emerging candidate. He went further to caution party members in their choice of candidates.
On the exit of General Muhammadu Buhari, the party’s two time presidential candidate and his supporters into the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Ezeoke said the departure was a fortune for ANPP because the party was likely to return as a united one.
The meeting attracted prominent members of the party led by the governors of Borno, Kano and Yobe states; an elder party leader Alhaji Bashir Tofa, three former governors of the party, serving Senators and members of House of Representatives as well as party leaders at the national and state levels.
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