Awka — AS the uncertainty over the future of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, continues, following the emergence of a mega party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, the youth wing of APGA has denied knowledge of any talks by the party with other political parties for the purpose of merger.

National youth leader of APGA, Mr. Okpara Ferguson Ogbonnaya, said it was ironic that some people belonging to a party in a democratic dispensation would contemplate taking action that would involve the totality of party members without the courtesy of allowing such a weighty decision to be deliberated upon by the party.

He said: "The action of those that unilaterally said that APGA, our great party, has merged with other parties can justifiably be described as a manifestation of dictatorship and apparent lack of direction. APGA youths were yet to get over the shock of the purported planned merger only to read on the pages of the newspapers that the purported merger had already transformed into the formation of a new party, meaning that APGA has ceased to exist, God forbid!

'This is perhaps one reason those who claim to control our great party have refused to strengthen the party in any form, so that it would give them room to continue to manipulate the party for their selfish purposes. The APGA youth wing calls on every APGA member to respect the party and its ideals, which are greatly bound to the ideals of our late leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. As Ojukwu always told us, APGA is essentially to give voice to the Igbos and not an instrument to negotiate selfish, political calculation.

"We call on all faithful APGA members and Nigerians, as well as INEC to ignore the story as regards APGA merging with any political party in Nigeria. The idea of merging without consultations with any party in Nigeria was never the dream of the founding fathers of APGA. So, what they have done is telling us that they have dissociated themselves from our great APGA."