A pro-APC grassroots group, the Concerned Members of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Onitsha South Local Government Area of Anambra State, has asked the party’s national leadership to reject Chief Val Ozigbo, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in 2021, ‘s plan to join the party to contest the 2025 governorship election in the state.
The group was reacting to information it gathered, revealing that Ozigbo, Â a loyalist of Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour Party Presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, has concluded plans to join APC to contest for the party’s primary on April 5, 2025, since it has become clear to him that he would not fly with Labour Party.
Addressing newsmen in Onitsha, Chief Festus Ezeako, the chairman of the Concerned APC group, warned the party not to open its doors to Ozigbo, as he would be entering the party “with his well-known Church politics of denominational division, which was introduced into Anambra State politics by his political godfather, Mr. Peter Obi.”
He alleged that  Ozigbo made a u-turn from the Labour Party and is now on his way to join the APC, “a party he has begun to whip up religious and denominational sentiments already even before fully joining the party.”
The chairman of the concerned group remarked that Catholic/Anglican/Pentecostal politics, which destroyed the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Labour Party, is the only value the former president and CEO of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, Transcorp, is coming to introduce into the APC.
Chief Ezeako accused Ozigbo of basing his desire to join the APC on his religious and denominational background, which he said the party must reject instantly.
Regrettably, he said, the Anambra State governorship election has never been based on the strength and character of the candidate and the party the candidate is running on its platform but rather on religion and denomination.
The chairman accused Obi, who he alleged was his mole, of mobilizing all the Catholic Bishops during the 2021 Anambra State governorship election to endorse him. He added that he still lost the election because critical stakeholders in the state did not support the religious sentiment being canvassed by Ozigbo and Obi.
Ezeako said: “All  of them put together did not support him and he failed. He will fail again as Catholic/Anglican/Pentecostal sentiment has become a vexed issue in Anambra State governorship election.”
He noted that Ozigbo’s entry into APC is a distraction, as he does not have any political structure or strong political influence.
According to him, the Obedient Movement, which Ozigbo banked on for joining LP, has since fizzled out, querying what value his entry into APC will bring, if not to cause a religious and denominational rift in a party that does not accept religious and denominational division.
