…Accuses Their state Chairman; Agballah of diverting over N500m, buying a house worth N280m in Enugu
…Agballah says the allegations are false
Whatever is left of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State after the 2023 general elections is about to be buried completely as the leadership of the party is at daggers drawn following a knockout piece by Charles-Solo Ako, the State Publicity Secretary of APC to the chairman, Ugochukwu Agballah.
The APC had a disastrous outing in the last election in Enugu State as it failed to win a single elective position. Non of the party’s candidate could win any ward nor local government for the party.
In the piece titled: “UGOCHUKWU AGBALLA: THE MIDWIFE THAT STRANGLED THE WOMAN IN LABOR,” Mr. Ako said the APC in Enugu State is fast drifting into “a private company-like status, under a sole administrator in the person of Ugochukwu Agballa.”
The publicity Secretary said “Agballa’s leadership is a hallmark of excessive abuse of office, neglect and dereliction of duty, failure to discharge party constitutional responsibilities; and exclusion of State Executive Committee (SEC), State Working Committee (SWC) members, Party Stalwarts and Leaders from the affairs of the party to the detriment of the image of our party and her chances of making any meaningful positive political impact.”
Aside accusing Agballah of running the party aground, Ako accused the party Chairman of diverting the funds meant for the delegates of the APC for the presidential primary election and the money provided by the party for the 2023 general election.
Read the full piece below:
The leadership of Ugochukwu Agballa – the State Chairman of All Progressives Congress APC, Enugu State is marked with gross abuse of our party constitution, impunity, embezzlement of party funds, nonchallant attitude, incompetence and high handedness; and all these are drifting our great party to a private company-like status, under a sole administrator in the person of Ugochukwu Agballa. Agballa’s leadership is a hallmark of excessive abuse of office, neglect and dereliction of duty, failure to discharge party constitutional responsibilities; and exclusion of State Executive Committee (SEC), State Working Committee (SWC) members, Party Stalwarts and Leaders from the affairs of the party to the detriment of the image of our party and her chances of making any meaningful positive political impact – the just concluded general elections are good case study.
The APC Enugu State is snowballing into becoming Agballa Private Company.
I am verily lost in thought and imagination how any right thinking member of our great Party – All Progressives Congress APC, Enugu State and the general public will still take Ugochukwu Agballa and his delusion and braggadocio serious, after leading the party to a disgraceful and shameful 2023 electioneering outing – elections not only that he neither vote nor canvass for votes for our candidates, but he equally undermined and worked against the victory of our President-Elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other viable APC candidates in the state.
It is shameful and appalling that this self acclaimed “capacity chairman” – who is a feather weight politician of less value and insignificant in all political coefficient metrics still summons courage to talk about APC – the party he greatly undermined its growth and success; yet people still give him audience. What kind of society are we?
Ugochukwu Agballa absolutely has nothing anymore to do in the party as he has successfully decimated the party into a carcass – an assignment he has come to carry out, which he has successfully perfected with the assistance of some ignorant low profile thinkers and sycophants in our Party. In a decent society, Agballa suppose to forever bury his head in shame. But on the instead, he would like to generate some confusion and unthinkable foolish, funny and ridiculous actions to deceive and manipulate some minions into believing that Agballa is doing something – no wonder his nickname “Ebeanaeje” – he embarks on journey with neither a mission nor a vision. Ebeanaeje indeed is visionless.
Today in Enugu State, the APC whom the citizens of Enugu State have been looking up to becoming the best credible alternative political platform is a big mockery courtesy of Ugochukwu Agballa.
In the just concluded Presidential election, a total of 9,352,001 votes that our President-Elect gannered to win the election, Enugu State could only boast of a disdain 4,772 votes translating to 0.05% insignificant contribution to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu victory, and Ugo Agballa is proudly parading himself as a chairman? God forbid! To be sincere, this meagre 0.05% votes were made possible by committed independent people like myself and few others, and NEVER was it from Agballa nor his cohorts because, from abinitio, Ugo Agballa NEVER campaigned for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Ugo Agballa need to be shown the way out of the APC if he fails to resign honourably. He is a collosal disaster and a serial failure.
We need to rebuild our Party.
Let’s rise and rescue this Party from Agballa’s brazen scuffle to scuttle the remaining life of our Party in Enugu State. I call on the leaders of this Party – the Founding Fathers, members of the SWC, and the SEC, faithful party members at different organs of the party to rise up and join hands to rescue our party from the firm clutches of Ugo Agballa.
I therefore enumerates as follows just to mention but a few, Agballa’s mind-boggling display of gross abuse of party constitution with impunity, high handedness, embezlement of party funds not minding its attending consequences.
Since the commencement of Agballa’s leadership as the State Chairman till date, the SWC has met only three times which the instance of convening the meetings were either as a result of pressure and agitation from members of the SWC or he has invited us to witness a press briefing on expulsion of one member or the other on the basis of witch hunting. This is a total violation to the provision of the APC Constitution Article 25.3.i which states that the SWC shall meet atleast once every month. The SEC has officially/formally met only twice since Agballa’s assumption of office.
Agballa has been taking unilateral decisions on the affairs of the party and runs the party as a sole administrator without a recourse to either the SWC or the SEC. This is a total contravention to the provision of the APC Constitution Article 13.8 which 13.8.i specifically states that the State Executive Committee shall administer the party in the state and implement the decisions of the State Congress…; and a contravention to the provision of the APC constitution Article 13.9 which states thus: “The State Working Committee shall be responsible for the Administration of the party and putting into effect the decisions of the State Executive Committee. To this end, the state working committee shall carry out the day-to-day running of the affairs of the party.” All the functions as being provided by this Article 13.9.i to ix are solely carried out by Agballa and with whom he chooses to do what. Agballa deliberately polarized both the SEC and SWC and render them irrelevant for the single reason of achieving his selfish gainsm.
There is no presence or formation of the State Congress and State Caucus as being provided by the APC Constitution Article 12.8 and Article 12.10 respectively. The relevance of these two organs of the party, duties and critical roles they would supposedly play to the growth of the party is better imagined. However, their non existence is deliberate and intentional as Agballa would not want more people to come on board as it will interfer with his one man show style of administration.
The APC Enugu State till this moment since Agballa’s assumption of office has no Secretariat. This deliberate action contravenes the provision of APC Constitution Article 8.ii which provides that offices in state capitals shall be determined by the SEC. The absence of a state party secretariat could be adjudged to be deliberate and intentional as its provision would afford some SEC and SWC Members the opportunity to have office space attached to them which could activate steady interaction and possibly raise the consciousness and awareness to interogate on party activities – a situation which Ugo Agballa wouldn’t want to happen.
The party in the state sold LG Chairmanship and Ward Councillorship Forms in the month of February 2022 to 17 LG Chairmanship Candidates and 260 Ward Councillorship Candidates for the state elections conducted by ENSIEC; the report or the financial statement of account of that exercise remains a secret to both the SEC and SWC till date. Agballa kept everything to himself.
During the primary elections that brought our 2023 candidates on board, Delegate Forms were sold to 10 delegates from each of the 260 Wards in the state at the cost of Five thousand naira (N5000) per form amounting to thirteen million naira (N13,000,000). There is no report or financial statement of account on that exercise till date. Neither the SEC nor SWC was even in the picture during the whole exercise. Agballa managed it as his private business under Agballa Private Company, choosing whoever he likes and assigning duties to them as the Sole Administrator that he is.
During the sale of Candidates nomination Forms for the just concluded 2023 elections, the party sold nomination forms to more than 24 State House of Assembly Candidates. Agballa has not given any update on that till date. The party at the National equally promised certain percentage of the total money realized from the sales of the Forms to states, the position of Enugu State quota is a top secret to members of the SEC and SWC; only Agballa knows everything, handles everything and owns everything.
I am equally aware of the much funds that have come to the party in the state in form of donations from party supporters; pitifully, the disbursement of such funds, its actual amount were never discussed anywhere as the SEC, and SWC members were consistently excluded from such classified ‘prime information’.
Prior to the Presidential primary election/National Convention, some amount of monies have come to the party in the state from presidential aspirants in the form of consultations, such consultations with the actual amount given to Enugu State were in shady and cloudy mode as Agballa finds it extremely impossible to discuss it with the SWC or the SEC or even with the ‘intended assumed delegates’; he gives anyone whatever he likes.
Most of the SEC and SWC members are more or less like a rubber stamp as Agballa plants whoever he chooses to carry out any official responsibility without a regard from the state officer in question. He has successfully polarized some of the offices and made the party officer(s) totally incapacitated.
Many good number of our party faithful before now have lost confidence on Agballa’s style of administration; and as a result couldn’t condone his excesses. Meanwhile, the last thing you could dare do is to advise him or want to correct him. Such good spirited faithful members have left the party in great numbers and many more are being humiliated and intimidated to leave. We are loosing quality members on daily basis for Labour Party, APGA and PDP. Even when reconciliations were initiated to bring the disgruntled members back to our party, Agballa ensures that such exercise never see the light of the day.
During the presidential primary election/National Convention where Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged as our party’s presidential candidate, the delegates from our South East states got atleast $35000 each amount of money received from presidential aspirants as gifts and logistics but the delegates from Enugu State got only $11000. Agballa who is the sole anchor man for consultation as the state chairman collected $20000 gift for each of the delegates from Enugu State and made away with all of the money – telling the delegates that Tinubu didn’t give Enugu state any farthing. Agballa collected $5000 from VP Osibanjo on behalf of each of the delegates and gave the delegates $1000 each and made away with $4000 on each of the delegates telling the delegates that VP Osibanjo gave $1000. Agballa received consultation and logistics allowance of $10000 on behalf of each of the delegates from Enugu state but he gave $5000 to each of the delegates and made away with $5000 on each head of the delegates. Agballa has consistently fed the delegates with false information and lies. These wrong information, dishonest practices are being frowned at by the APC Constitution Article 21.2.v and 21.2.viii. Agballa’s act of oppressions and exploitations are totally condemnable as it contravenes the provisions of APC Constitution Article 7.xii, xiii, xiv.
Agballa has put the party in bad image by ensuring that the Gubernatorial candidate and his deputy as officially published by the INEC in her final list of candidates come from one senatorial zone – Enugu East. There is no enough reason whatsoever for allowing the name of the state secretary – Robert Ngwu from Enugu East senatorial zone, same zone with the gubernatorial candidate to appear and remain on the INEC Final List against the name of Barr George Ogara Taagbo of Enugu North who was officially unveiled to the members of the party and the general public up till the date of election.
This is a big embarrassment to our great party with its devastating effect of ridicules and disrepute. This is a deliberate attempt to cause confusion as the party had enough time as provided by INEC to make any necessary changes and replacements (APC Constitution Article 21.2.x). The truth remains that Ogara’s name was not submitted to INEC; Agballa and Robert have their best reasons why they did that.
In a bid to undermine the chances of APC winning elections in Nkanu East and Nkanu West Federal Constituency, Agballa deliberately refused to field a House of Representatives Candidate for this constituency only to create an opportunity for a landslide victory for Honorable Nnolim Nnaji – the PDP House of Representatives Candidate who is a younger brother to the Chief Uche Nnaji – the APC Gubernatorial Candidate. This is a clear antiparty of the highest order – APC Constitution Article 21.1.i; and a clear contravention to the provisions of Article 7.iv, v, ix, x and Article 13.7.vi.
As a last resort against further bastardizing the image of our great party and furthering the drift from the goodwill of this party, ensuring its growth and unity; and to avoid putting the party into further hatred, contempt and disrepute (Article 21.2.ii) the honourable thing for Ugo Agballa is to willingly resign from being the chairman of the party. He has completed his assignment contracted to him by his pay master in ensuring that APC did not make any headway in the just concluded 2023 general elections.
Few days to the presidential election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu sent fifteen million naira to each of the House Of Representatives Candidate in our state. Ugo Agballa pocketed part of that money.
Just few weeks ago, Ugo Agballa bought for himself a house at Zoo Estate at N280m being part of the proceeds of our embezzled funds. Ugo Agballa is presently building a massive housing estate in Abuja. Many of us knew who and what Ugo Agballa was and worth before becoming the State Chairman of APC. Ugo Agballa has suddenly becomes a star that benevolent spirit and divine favor falls only on him amongst the whole members of the SWC and SEC.
I speak as the voice of APC, Enugu State. I represents the voices of members of the SWC and SEC whose their executive positions have been rendered redundant. I represents the voice of the founding fathers and leaders of our great party who has worked hard and made sacrifices in building this party hoping to form the government of the day one day in Enugu State. I desire for a vibrant rebranded APC that could start in earnest to organize herself with a civilized modest approaches and messages to woo people into joining the party to grow to the level of winning elections. I desire for an APC that will united with less conflict, have people oriented goals, remain focused and diligently pursue it with all sense of purpose.
I dare the Chairman, Ugo Agballah, to respond to the issues I have raised herewith rather than his usual personal attacks and assigning his media mad dogs to copy and paste what he wrote and gave them. I urge all of us to also demand answers to the issues I have raised. Every leader must be held responsible and accountable for his/her actions and
Ugo Agballa should not be an exception.
However, responding to the allegations, Agballah told our correspondent that he didn’t receive any fund for the election from national leadership of the APC, adding that all the funds spent on the course of the electioneering campaign were provided by their Governorship candidate; Chief Uchenna Nnaji
“Well it is not true as we did not receive any funding for the election from the national level. You can go to the national headquarters and verify if they sent money to the state and you can go to TINUBU’s presidential campaign organization and can call Hon Faleke who is in charge of disbursements to find out,” Agballah clarified via an SMS sent to JOURNALIST101 correspondent.
Speaking further, he said: “Happily I or any (sic) member of state Exco did not receive or disburse any dime for the presidential or governorship campaign. Also u should know that the State coordinator of the presidential campaign is Chief Uche Nnaji whom u can as well approach to confirm that no dime was sent to him (sic).
“Those former APC members who worked for other opposition parties do not know what transpired during the election and are busy making wild allegations which we shall react to if found defamatory.
“Also it is pertinent to inform u that the State APC is not the campaign org of the president or the gov therefore we did not solicit or receive any funds.”
On the allegation of buying a new house worth N200m at Zoo Estate Enugu, the APC Chairman said “I have been living in my present abode long before I became chairman of APC. It is important in your report u state the names of those making the allegations as we are already in court with one AC Udeh for defaming me and making unfounded allegations that I was given 1.3 billion for the campaign.”
