A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Enugu State, Mr. Adolphus Ude has dragged the party’s chairman, Barr. Ugochukwu Agballah to court over alleged N1.7 billion fraud.
Also joined in the suit as defendant is the governorship candidate of the APC in Enugu State, Chief Uche Nnaji.
Ude, in suit No. E/47/2023, filed a criminal complaint against the duo before an Enugu State High Court.
The plaintiff is accusing Agballah and Nnaji of misappropriating party funds and lack of accountability.
Ude, who is the pioneer deputy chairman of the party in Enugu State, alleged in the suit that the Enugu State chapter of the party realized N786 million from the sale of Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms, which the defendants were yet to account for.
He also alleged that the APC, Enugu State, realized an additional $1,351,000 from consultations and logistics from presidential aspirants, but that Agballah and Nnaji had refused to account for the monies despite agitations and protests by members of the party in the state.
“Since the third defendant (Nnaji) was nominated as the (governorship) candidate of the party, he has connived with the second defendant (Agballah) to misappropriate the funds of the party and run the affairs of the party with impunity.
“The second and third defendants misappropriated the $1.5 million given to the APC, Enugu State, as delegates’ allowances and failed to pay the money to the delegates. The second and third defendants appropriated the money for themselves instead,” he stated in the suit.
He is, therefore, seeking an order of the court directing Agballah and Nnaji to “render and publish a detailed account of the amount realised by the APC in Enugu State from the issuance and purchase of Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms by the aspirants in the APC for the governorship position in Enugu State in the 2023 general election.”
The plaintiff is also pressing for an order of court directing Agballah and Nnaji to render and publish a detailed account of the use and proof of disbursement of the sum of $1.5 million released by the first defendant (APC) for the payment of allowances of the first defendant’s delegates from Enugu State to the National Convention and presidential primary election of the first defendant.”
He further averred that, “By a letter dated August 19, 2022, the second defendant’s ward, the Udi/Agbudu Ward in Udi Local Government Area suspended the second defendant from being a member of the Ward and expelled him from the Ward and debarred him from holding party office in APC.
“This was as a result of the corruption and impunity perpetrated by the second defendant in handling the affairs and funds of the APC, Enugu State. Notwithstanding his suspension and expulsion from APC in his Ward, the second defendant continued to parade himself as the chairman of APC, Enugu State and to meddle in the affairs of the party with impunity and without authority.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
Newspot recalls that earlier in January, Ude led a protest of aggrieved Enugu APC members against Agballah and Nnaji at the APC national secretariat in Abuja.
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