The crisis rocking the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, took a turn for the worse on Friday, with many stakeholders passing a vote of no confidence on the party’s chairman, Barr Ugochukwu Agballah.
The party leaders said they were saddened over the manner Agballah has been piloting the affairs of the party since assuming office.
The stakeholders, made up of founding members of the party in the state, held a unification meeting in Enugu, where they lauded President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje and the Commissioner representing Enugu State in the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Chief Mrs. Ginika Tor, for their commitment in advancing the party.
During the meeting with the theme “uniting the party in support of Tinubu/Shettima renewed Hope Agenda”, participants went down memory lane on how the party was nurtured to an attractive level by those unconstitutionally suspended by Agballah.
The stakeholders expressed deep concern that rather than taking the party to the next level, the Agballah-led administration had destroyed the political structure through unconstitutional suspension of founding fathers of the party such as former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, ex-governor Sullivan Chime, ex-state Chairman, Dr. Ben Nwoye, former Director General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu, former speaker of the Enugu State of Assembly, Eugene Odoh and recently Tor.
Addressing the stakeholders, convener of the meeting, Tor, expressed displeasure that Agballah has run the party aground, chasing away the genuine key stakeholders.
She described Enugu APC under Agballah “as a suspension party”, saying that they would no longer fold their arms and watch strangers who joined their fold from other political parties destroy the APC through illegal suspension and other anti-members’ activities.
Tor maintained that it was high time all the purported suspended stakeholders came back and rebuilt their home for the success of the president Tinubu and the APC-led Federal Government.
She said: “We must come back to possess our possession. We must not be discouraged by the activities of those currently piloting the affairs of the party who do not wish the party well, we must say enough is enough.
“How could somebody who claims he wishes the party well keep suspending people who laboured for the party?”
In his remark, the immediate past chairman of the party and moderator of the meeting, Dr Ben Nwoye said it was unthinkable for anybody to announce the suspension of such a number of big wigs of a political party.
He condemned in its entirety the idea of piloting the affairs of the party as a private enterprise by the incumbent chairman, calling on the genuine members of the party to come back and rebuild their political house.
Nwoye noted that the vote of no confidence has shown that all was not well with the party in the state and needed the urgent intervention of the national secretariat to salvage the situation.
He lamented that the once envious APC has been turned into a laughing stock.
Other speakers who expressed worry over the poor leadership and autocratic style of the state Chairman, included the pioneer organising Secretary of the party in the state, Hon. Ifeanyichukwu Edeh, and the APC House of Representatives candidate for Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency in the 2023 general election, Dr. Oby Ajih, among others.
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