A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State and former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, Mr Osita Okechukwu, Monday, told Gov Peter Mbah not to accommodate some people he called “political bandits” in the ongoing composition of ward and local government executives of APC in the state.
Mr Okechukwu said his message to Gov Mbah was prompted by some feelers indicating that two of the four slots allocated to the APC in the proposed nine-member Ward and LGA Executive structure had beed ceded to the Chief Ugo Agballa group.
THE WHISTLER reports that Agballa led the APC in Enugu State during the ministerial era of former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji. The state APC under Agballa was sacked by the party’s National Working Committee when Chief Nnaji was enmeshed in certificate forgery. Nnaji later resigned from the federal cabinet.
Okechukwu told journalists that it was wrong for Mbah to reward someone he described as “a serial renegade”. He accused Agballa of leading a political coup that contributed to the APC securing only 4,722 votes in the 2023 presidential election in Enugu State.”
He said APC had recorded about 56,000 votes in the 2019 presidential election, and hoped to consolidate the performance in 2023. He however said the hopes were dashed after Chief Agballa “was imposed on the party”.
He accused Agballa of “driving many party members away” during his leadership of the party in the state. He therefore advised Gov Mbah to ensure equity and fairness in the composition of party executives.
“If the governor rates Chief Agballa so highly despite widespread reservations, then he should, as a matter of fairness, allocate two slots to him from the five slots belonging to the PDP,” Okechukwu said.
Gov Mbah had during his decamping to APC collapsed the PDP leadership in the state into APC. All local government chairmen as well as members of the state Executive Council also left PDP for APC. The only remaining opposition member in the House is Labour Party’s Harrison Ogara representing Igboeze South Constituency.
Our correspondent reports that APC in Enugu State is currently under the erstwhile state Chairman of the party, Dr Ben Nwoye.