Unending rumble in Enugu APC claims Onyeama, Chime, Ken Nnamani, others

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Unending rumble in Enugu APC claims Onyeama, Chime, Ken Nnamani, others

The unending war of attrition in the Enugu state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has led to the expulsions and suspensions of prominent members of the party in the state.

In a press conference in Enugu, on Thursday, state secretary of the party, Robert Ngwu announced the party leaders axed with expulsion to include

former Governor Sullivan Chime; former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Eugene Odoh; Director General of Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu; former commissioner for Tourism, Ozor Joe Mmamel; Special Assistant to Foreign Affairs Minister, Flavour Eze; and former House of Representatives candidate in 2019, Maduka Arum (AKA Mama).

Those suspended are; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and former Senate President, Ken Nnamani.

The party had earlier expelled the former chairman of APC in the state, Dr. Ben Nwoye and a former deputy state chairman of the party, Mr. AC Udeh.

In the latest development, Ngwu at the end of the party’s SEC meeting, presented the report of the party’s Disciplinary and Fact Finding Committee, recommendations which he said were ratified by the State Executive Council, SEC, during her meeting.

Ngwu said, “The Party is fully aware of the nefarious activities of the previous administration of the party in the 2015 and 2019 General Elections. With that in mind, the Party reviewed various petitions and reports from the Fact-Finding Committee and the disciplinary committee against some individuals.

“They are Sen. Ken Nnamani, Barr. Sullivan Chime, Hon. Geoffrey Onyeama, Hon. Eugene Odoh, Mr Osita Okechukwu, and others, (Ozor Joe Mmamel, Mr Maduka Arum, and Mr Flavor Eze) from their different local government areas. The petition bothered on anti-party activities and other offences against the APC”.

While the party alleged that Sen Ken Nnamani and Sullivan Chime openly endorsed and campaigned for the governorship candidate of The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Peter Mbah; Geoffrey Onyeama and his SA, Flavour Eze campaigned for the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, and worked for the Governorship candidate of PDP, Mbah, using federal government palliatives like Cooking Stove, Wrappers, rice and garri.

The report alleged that the VON-DG, Okechukwu; former Speaker, Odoh; former Commissioner, Mmamel and Maduka Arum similarly engaged in different forms of anti-party activities which negatively affected the party’s performance in the state.

But the Enugu State Media Director of the APC Independent Campaign Council, ICC, Chief Flavour Eze while reacting to the development said that the main problem was the state chairman of the party, Ugochukwu Agballah whom he alleged is incompetent and corrupt.

Eze said that the gloating of Agballah has been APC’s albatross in Enugu state, stressing that the foundation members of the party in Enugu State were unfazed by Agballah’s recent vituperations on Onyeama, Senator Ken Nnamani and other founding members of the party by the embattled State chairman.

Eze described Ugochukwu Agballah’s antics as “rantings of a frail and sapped politician of yesteryears.”

Eze said that it was such a pity that Agballah who claims to be chairman of the party rather than engage in canvassing votes for the party, chose to engage in imaginary fisticuffs as a smoke screen for his incompetence and corrupt management of the party in the state.

He said that Agballah is a joker who sees a political party as a conduit for business as usual rather than his core mandate of administration and mobilisation of electorates for elections, adding that the party chairman still leaves in his ugly past.

Eze said that Agballah in a coup d’tat dispersed meaningful members of the party and arrogated himself in selfish aggrandizement, trumped up acrimony and polarized the party in order for the real leaders of the party to give him the way to conduct business with the party.

Eze alleged that Agballah made good his business and gave opposition parties in the state victory in exchange for porridge he bargained for and turned around to blame the founding leaders of the party for his incapacity.

“These are people you said that you don’t need but should give way so that when you emerge Governor, we can come back. Have you won now? And you say it’s the leaders. So why didn’t you do it without us?”

Eze wondered why the state chairman, Ugochukwu Agballah, like gloating, dwelling in his past vainglory and urged him to stop claiming political feats he never achieved in 1999 or any other recent past.

“Since 2003, Ugo who is not a good follower went into governorship voyage he failed woefully, repeated same failure in 2007 till he was mistakenly brought to APC where he has now exposed his frustration, avarice and ineptitude. So why lean on us?

“You people claimed you had all the wherewithal to finance the party and that everybody should give way for you to actualise your common fraudulent dream, so why attack us,” Eze queried.

He stated that Agballah failed to vote for the governorship candidate of the APC on the March 18 election, and wondered who else could have voted for the candidate when the state chairman of the party betrayed the party’s mandate.

Eze said that the Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, worked for the victory of the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu with multiple evidence of campaigns for the presidential candidate, but was restricted to work for the party’s victory in Enugu State because of the hostility of the state chairman, Ugochukwu Agballah.

Eze further expressed surprise that Agballah was talking about Covid-19 palliatives in 2023, noting that the issue of an alleged palliative disbursement to opposition parties was a complete display of Agballah’s ignoramus and desperate search for unintelligent excuse for failure.

On the real issues about the APC crisis in Enugu State, Eze said that Agballah was being chased by his own shadow, the problems he purposely created in his craving for the monopoly of power and corrupt ineptitude.

Eze said, “The real issues are that once Ugo was made the chairman of APC in Enugu State with the support of the leaders of the party such as the Minister, myself and others, he quickly became intoxicated with power, refused to convene stakeholders meeting and started begging presidential aspirants for money. Once any of the presidents came to Enugu, he will board the same flight with the aspirant back to wherever destination begging for money.

“But the head of Ugo’s tyranny and corrupt enrichment was his removal of duly elected delegates for the national convention and replacements with himself and his cronies who were not elected as delegates. As state chairman of the party, Ugo was not qualified as a delegate but he removed my name who is an appointee of the Minister and not of the Federal government just because he felt there was money to collect. His avarice has no bound.

“Take note that these leaders that Ugo Agballah decided to keep in the bench meant with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the airport when he came to Enugu, but we could not go to the campaign ground where Ugo even refused to acknowledge the Governor of Ebonyi state for the function. So decided to work with the ICC instead of the PCC. We actually campaigned for Tinubu which translated to the votes he got from Enugu State.”

He lampooned Agballah for struggling for the position of a Minister in a proposed government he worked against its victory and urged Nigerians to treat him with ignominy.

In his reaction to the development, the southeast spokesman of President-elect, Dr Josef said that the actors in the protracted crisis of APC in Enugu State were shortsighted and failed to look at the bigger picture of Asiwaju emerging as President of Nigeria.

He said the Minister, Onyeama tried much to Campaign for Asiwaju, but the other victims of the party’s disciplinary measures did not.