The crisis rocking the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) took a new dimension yesterday when some critical stakeholders led by the former Senate President Ken Nnamani, the minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama stormed the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
They demanded the immediate removal of the state chairman, Ugochukwu Agballah.
But in a swift reaction, Agballah asked the APC national leadership to ignore them, saying they are all APC in Abuja and PDP in Enugu, adding that they have never contributed anything to the success of the party in the state.
The stakeholders who met with the APC national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, at the party’s national secretariat, also called for an interim executive of the party in the state.
Other party leaders listed in the petition submitted to Adamu included a former governor of Enugu state, Sullivan Chime, General Okoloagu, Senator Ayogu Eze, Chief Gbazuagu Nweke, Barr. Eugene Odo, Barr. Ifeanyi Nwoga, Chief Onyemuche Nnamani and Osita Okechukwu.
In the petition, they said, “The party in Enugu State recorded an unprecedented milestone of reinvention of itself during the last membership registration exercise.
“The party rebounded in goodwill as membership soared and the Party continued on this positive trend into the ward and local government congresses and was cruising towards taking away the shine from the ruling party in the State.
“A major crack however emerged during the State Congress, when Mr. Ugochukwu Agballah was surreptitiously manoeuvred into the party to become its State Chairman to the bewilderment and vehement opposition of a majority of the Party members who knew his antecedents as a person and in Enugu State politics.
“The chairman may wish to recall that as Chairman of All Progressive Congress National Peace and Reconciliation Committee that H.E Sullivan Chime, immediate past Governor of Enugu State had led a protest of stakeholders/elders of Enugu State All Progressive Congress chapter against the emergence of Ugo Agaballah as State chairman on two grounds: (1) Non-membership of Ugo Agballah and (2) Controversial and irregular process of Ugo Agballah’s emergence as state chairman.
“Ugo Agballah was given the benefit of the doubt by a few leaders of the Party and issued a Certificate of Return. It was felt by those few leaders that the Party needed to change direction at all cost and have a vibrant leader who could finally unite the Party in the State. Unfortunately, the new chairman did not waste time in proving those majority leaders who opposed his emergence correct in their warning,” they said.
Responding to the call for his removal, the embattled chairman asked Adamu to choose between winning elections in Enugu and doing the bidding of the stakeholders who he described as Abuja politicians.
Noting that the crisis rocking the state party is deeper than the picture painted by Nnamani and others, Agballah said it was no longer a secret in Enugu that many of the elder statesmen that made up the delegation are known to foment trouble in every election year.
He said, “Prior to Uche Nnaji’s nomination (as APC governorship candidate) nobody has ever given a dime to any ward. None of these eminent personalities have ever contributed one dime to the party at the State, local ward, zonal or national level. None of them have been seen in their wards.
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