…accuses the nominee of perpetrating violence in his home state and performing below expectation
The Enugu State chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC, have intensified their call for the President to withdraw the nominee from their state, Geoffrey Onyeama who they said is a “misfit” for the exalted position of a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, FGN.
Speaking to newsmen in their party’s secretariat, the state chairman, Barr. Dr. Ben Nwoye said “after the State Executive Committee, SEC, of the party met on Thursday to review the state of the party and the renomination of the immediate past Minister of foreign affairs by President Buhari we resolved to appeal to the President to withdraw the nomination of Onyeama and nominate another worthy son of the state that’s deserving of the position.
Dr. Nwoye stressed that their call is hinged on so many factors which includes, the violent disposition of Mr. Onyeama on the activities of the state chapter of the party and his abysmal performance as a minister.
“Onyeama’s participation and sponsorship of electoral violence in Enugu State is unprecedented. You will recall that in the cause of the congress of the party that was held last year, Mr. Onyeama procured known cultists and violent individuals and insisted they must conduct a parallel congress, which he did. He conducted a parallel congress in his Eke ward, with the help of his cultist group, he did same parallel congress in some LGAs and in each instances, producing a parallel executives in contravention of extant laws and the rules of engagement within the party and supported by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“During the state congress, Mr. Onyeama recruited cultists, thugs and armed them with dangerous weapons and stormed the venue of the congress – the stadium, while the and violently disrupted the ongoing congress and in that instance, rigged the congress. Even when the then national leadership of the party under Chief John-Odigie Oyegun ordered that the congress should be stopped, Mr Onyeama constituted an illegal congress committee and shamelessly announced one Okey Ogbodo as the winner of the congress thereby setting the stage to rig the Guber primary of the state.
Dr. Nwoye also lamented the violent action of Mr. Onyeama during the guber primary in the state in which he accused Onyeama of using thugs he armed with bombs and teargas to beat-up party members and disrupting the process.
The APC Chairman called on USA to include Onyeama amongst the list of those that perpetrated violence in 2019 elections because his violent actions in Enugu State APC is better imagined.
“Onyeama’s violent activities was also made manifest when his thugs attacked me in my house, assaulted and shot my police officer and in the process, took away his rifle, which is still missing till date.
“Onyeama and his group masterminded the setting ablaze of their make-believe office in Enugu and burning about 2 vehicles in the process just to create a non existing anarchy.”
Dr Nwoye exonerated the president whom he said “is not aware of the violent tendencies of Onyeama before nominating him and our duty as party leaders in the state is to let him know and it’s not a personal thing and we challenge him to refute what I just said because we have the records of all his nefarious activities and they can be independently verified.”
Barr. Nwoye also took a swipe on the performance of the former Minister of foreign affairs which he described as “abysmal” judging by the number of Nigerian lives lost over the years while he held sway as minister.
“Onyeama as foreign affairs minister did nothing while Nigerians in diaspora are killed in their numbers. In South Africa alone, 118 persons were killed and 13 out of them were extrajudicial killings and their properties worth millions of dollars destroyed. Mr Onyeama was unable to come up with a single policy to curtail the maiming of Nigerians in diaspora. He went to South Africa to mediate on the crisis and he came back without any result as the killings continued.
“His poor performance was exposed when the President for the first time in our history appointed an SA for his ministry, the ministry of foreign affairs who in her own little way, became the mouthpiece of Nigerians.”
“Mr Onyeama in an attempt to intervene in the plight of Nigerians in Libya joined the Libyan authority to forcefully round up Nigerians and get them deported back to Nigeria against international laws dealing with migration of people.
“Mr. Onyeama formulated a policy and directly participated in returning these migrants without a plan or resettlement or at a minimum, basic lively assistance to these people.”
Dr. Nwoye stressed that the ministry of foreign affairs is too important a ministry to be left in the hands of an “incompetent fellow like Onyeama who under his watch, passport racketeering became a norm and this resulted into protests across many Nigerian embassies.
“Under Onyeama, hundreds of Nigerians die in the Mediterranean sea while he’s aloof.
“Nigeria is in a crossroad and we can’t afford to live on mistakes and when we make mistakes either based on wrong information or lack of information, we correct it because that’s what makes us human.
“The demand of Enugu State APC is not the first time such request will be made of the president. In the first term of the President, the nominee from Niger state was withdrawn when his nomination was brought into question and it was discovered that his nomination was a mistake.
“Onyeama can’t hold the country to ransom, you can’t patch it as he lacks the ability to hold such exalted office. People that hold such office are looked upon as the face of the nation” Dr. Nwoye concluded
