Billionaire businessman and politico, Ifeanyi Ubah, insists he hasn’t defected from YPP to APC.
According to journalist and public commentator, Fred Chukwuelobe, who spoke with him, below is how their encounter went: “I just got off the phone with Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, senator-elect, Anambra South, and he told me categorically that he has not joined the All Progressives Congress ( APC).
“I had earlier said the business mogul is a very smart and intelligent person and could not dump the party on which platform he was elected senator, more so when he has not taken his seat in the red chambers.
“The political juggernaut, who pulled one of the biggest upsets in the election, told me to disregard the story, which is trending on social media.
Hear him:
“I have not joined the APC. I’m only caucusing with the APC in the interest of my constituency. (Caucusing is “a meeting of members of a political party for the purpose of choosing candidates for an election
: a group of people (such as members of the U.S. Congress) who meet to discuss a particular issue or to work together for a shared, usually political goal”)
What happened was that the national chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, introduced me to Mr. President at a dinner with other elected officials and told them that I am a potential APC member.
Oshiomhole is a good marketer and he’s chasing after a good product. But I’m only strategizing on getting a better position in an opposition party so that I can serve my people creditably.
We still have a case in court and it will be wrong for me to ignore that and jump to the APC. It will also be unfair to the people that voted for me; it is an injustice to my district and I can’t in all fairness treat them that way.
Fred, you know me to know I’m smarter than that. I don’t want to be a lone voice in the Senate. I don’t want to stand alone. I want to caucus with the APC majority from an opposition to best represent my people and ensure they get the best democracy dividends possible and are not left behind.
I’m aligning with Senator Ahmed Lawan, the incoming Senate president who has received the blessing of Mr. President and who has promised to treat my people well by recognising my qualities and, perhaps, giving me strategic post from which to serve the country at large and my district in particular.
I am still in YPP, the platform on which I won. But I’m strategizing with the ruling party and its allowed in a representative democracy”.
Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah, Senator-Elect, Anambra South.”