The Enugu state acting Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Nwafor Alphonsus Onyeachonam, has described the 27th August meeting converged by the “suspended” Chairman Ugochukwu Agballah as a parade of shame, accusing him of impersonation and attempting to hijack the party.
In a statement made available to press men in Enugu, Nwafor who is recognised by the court as the Chairman of the party, emphasized that the meeting was an aberration and illegal gathering of persons who do not mean well for the party.
The Acting Chairman emphatically dismissed “the purported suspensions of our party leaders and appealed to aggrieved members of the party to come back to the fold to build a stronger APC in the Enugu state.”
“We have taken note of the aberration and impersonations that took place on Saturday August 24 in our party office at GRA Enugu, where the impudent Ugochukwu Agballah converged with co-travellers despite the court order prohibiting him from such impersonation. The impunity was further perpetuated with the dropping of the name of the National Chairman of our Party, Dr Abdulahi Ganduje as being represented by Emma Eneukwu.
“Let it be known here and now that there was nothing like the representation of Dr. Ganduje in the charade as convoked on August 24 2024. The National Chairman of our party does not participate in illegal gatherings and has never found himself on the wrong side of the law as was attended in Bishop Onyeabor street, GRA, Enugu.” He said
He equally noted that the party will actively participate in the forthcoming council polls in the state and urged members of the party to prepare for the election.
“Let it be known now that the APC will be participating in the 2024 local government elections in Enugu state. Previous gaffe by the rested chairman in the contrary should be discarded into the trash bin as the our party has made every arrangement to participate and win all Chairmanship and councillorship positions in the 260 wards in the forthcoming council polls in Enugu state. Ugochukwu Agballah is afraid of participating in further elections because the past 2023 elections exposed him as a non-registered voter who has no genuine voter card but parades a fake one.”
“We pledge our support and solidarity to the President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Chairman of the APC, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje. We promise our unalloyed support, to work harder to ensure that the APC redefines its strength in Enugu state and in the entire south east. We urge the President to ignore opportunists such as Ugochukwu Agballah who is seeking to be given appointment after ensuring that the APC lost in Enugu state. We urge the presidency to ask Agballah to approach the political party that he worked for in the 2023 election for an appointment.” He added
Dr. Nwafor accused Agballah of diminishing the fortunes of the party and going on suspension spree of their leaders.
“The very last leadership of our party in Enugu state came with a mission to disorganise the party and crumble it as dictated for them by their paymasters. A breakdown of APC’s fortune and disaster from 2015 to 2023 presidential elections will validate our claims.
“In the 2015 Presidential election in Enugu state, our party, the APC scored 14,157 votes which represented 2.47 percent. In the 2019 Presidential election, the APC gathered 54, 423 votes, an increase to 12.93 percent. But with the party’s slide into the bad hands of Ugochukwu Agballah and his mafia group, the APC growing fortunes waned in Enugu state with the party scoring only 4,772 votes, representing only 1.04 percent, in the 2023 Presidential election in the Enugu state.
“It was so shameful for our party members because even in Anambra state where the presidential candidate of the Labour Party came from, the APC got higher voters (5,101) in Anambra than Enugu state APC. Thus, with the above performance index, it’s very discernible that the Enugu state APC under the watch of the then chairman (Barr Ugochukwu Agballa) failed woefully.
“There is no better word to describe Barrister Ugochukwu Agballah in APC than a ‘mole,’ the very word he had used on leaders and other members of the party and made his followers to believe that those he perceived as enemies of the APC were the cause of the misfortunes in the party.
“At the peak of his draconian leadership, Ugochukwu Agballah suspended the foundation leaders of the party such as the pioneer Chairman of APC in Enugu State, Dr. Ben Nwoye; former Senate President, Ken Nnamani; former Governor Sullivan Chime, Former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Chief Flavour Eze (his kinsman who nominated him as party chairman); Osita Okechukwu, the former DG of Voice of Nigeria (VON); the former Speaker of Enugu state House of Assembly, Eugene Odoh; Lady Ginika Tor, just to mention but a few of the political strong weights in Enugu politics who Agballah was afraid of their influence.”
While pledging allegiance to President Tinubu’s administration, he called on well-meaning members of the party to unite in rebuilding it in the state.
