Federal minister of science and technology and APC chieftain, Ogbonnaya Onu, says leaders of the party in the Southeast are plotting means to take over power in the region come 2023.

Mr. Onu made the disclosure after a closed-door meeting of the party’s leaders from the zone in Abuja on Monday night.

“Leaders of APC in the South-East met in the residence of our governor, governor of Imo,” Mr. Onu told reporters. “We have representation from all the five  states of the South-East and all our top leaders, ministers, governors, members of the National Assembly, indeed all the leaders of the South-East.”

Noting that the party had just one governor from the zone out of the 36 state governors, the minister said that effort was underway to ensure that all the five states of the region produced governors on the platform of APC.

“We have one governor now. We are working so that by 2023 we will be able to have five governors who are of APC in the South-East,” he said. “We are also preparing for the by-elections, one in Enugu, and there is a Senate seat in Imo. We are working very hard to make sure that we  win in these elections.”

A former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani, who was at the meeting also spoke to journalists about the rumoured planned defection of the Ebonyi state governor from the PDP.

He described the move as a work in progress.

“The issue of the governor of Ebonyi is work in progress. We are not definitive about what is going to happen but we are trying to show that our party is a very large one.

“We are in the  process of rebuilding the party. Our gate is wide open for every person who loves democracy.

“We will pick you up and there is a comfortable seat, this is a new APC coming up,” Mr. Nnamani said.

(NAN)