In an intemperate display of deep-seated animosity, factional Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, has been quoted as saying that he regretted why the Arik Airlines plane carrying Governor Peter Obi of his home state Anambra and more than 100 other passengers did not crash.

Umeh, who has been locked in a bitter battle for the control of APGA, was reacting to the narrow escape of Obi and other passengers last Tuesday when the Arik flight from Lagos to Asaba encountered extremely bad weather but managed to return to Lagos and land successfully after several hours.

Sources told News Express that guests at a dinner in the house of Engr. Arthur Eze at Ukpo, Anambra State, reacted in shock when Umeh said that had the captain lost control and had Obi died, that would have taught others a lesson on the transience of power.
A source at the dinner said that Arthur Ezeh tongue-lashed Umeh for wishing another person dead because of politics. “He made it clear to him that he could be wishing somebody like him dead too because he has a private jet. The confused Umeh now pretended that he made the statement tongue-in-check,” the source said.
Some of those at the dinner included Chike Udenze (Jakarta), Chief Bishop Okafor (Ebubedike na Ukpo), Cosmas Ogagwo (Okpoka na Abba), and Ikechukwu Okoye, among others.

News Express tried to reach Umeh for his reaction but his media aide, Mr. Maxwell Oditta, said: “The APGA National Chairman is too serious and too busy to respond to such fabricated tales from Obi’s media aides.”

•Photo shows Chief Umeh.