The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu, has described his expulsion by the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress as a desperate attempt to ease out foundation members of the party by the state chairman, Ugochukwu Agballa.
Okechukwu alongside former governor Sullivan Chime; former Speaker of state House of Assembly, Eugene Odo; an aide to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Flavour Eze and two others were on Thursday by the state chapter of the party over alleged anti-party activities.
Also suspended were former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, and Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama.
The disciplinary actions were announced by the party’s Enugu State Secretary, Robert Ngwu, who accused the party chieftains of endorsing candidates from other political parties in the just concluded 2023 general election.
While delivering the disciplinary committee’s report, Ngwu said the report was approved by an expanded State Executive Committee meeting.
He said, “The party is fully aware of the nefarious activities of the previous administration of the party in the 2015 and 2019 general elections. With that in mind, the party reviewed various petitions and reports from the fact-finding committee and the disciplinary committee against some individuals.
“The Fact-finding Committee and the Disciplinary Committee have established a prima facie case of anti-party activities against Senator Ken Nnamani and recommended him for suspension from the party.”
But the VON DG told our correspondent on the telephone that he, just like many other foundation members, is innocent of the allegation.
He disclosed that rather than apologise over APC’s poor showing at the just concluded general elections, the leadership of the party resorted to persecution of members.
While describing his alleged anti-party activities as a “childish lie”, Okechukwu fingered the party chairman, whom he claimed was power-drunk, as being the brain behind the drama.
According to him, Agballa came into the party from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to hijack the leadership and push out foundation members and people with dissenting views.
Okechuwu stated, “The story of my kinsman Ugo Agbala is the story of a failed chairman quarreling with himself. He came from PDP akin to a political bandit and hijacked our great party.
“To fill his empty pocket, he drove all the stakeholders away and boasted he will quadruple the 56,000 votes we scored at the 2019 presidential election. Regrettably, he scored abysmally only 4,722 votes.
When contacted for reaction, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, could not be reached.
The APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, however expressed surprise at the report.
“I am surprised. How did all these important personalities get suspended and expelled? The last Okechukwu and I spoke was prior to the election. Well, I don’t know what really transpired, but this decision must have been taken at any of the ward, state or grass roots level. I believe they must have also copied the leadership of the party at the national secretariat. But up till the time I left the office today, it has not come.”
As of the time of filing this report, Ex-Gov Chime, Nnamani and Onyeama could not be reached for reactions.
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