By NewsBits
Fresh crisis has begun in Enugu State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) following the ‘vote of no confidence’ passed on the current state chairman of the party, Barrister Ugochukwu Agballah by stakeholders of the party in the state.
The grassroots members of APC said they were unhappy with the manner their chairman, Agballah has been piloting the affairs of the party since his assumption of office.
But the stakeholders who held a unification meeting in Enugu on Friday, passed a vote of confidence on President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje and the Federal Commissioner representing Enugu State in the Federal Character Commission, Chief Mrs Ginika Tor, for their commitments in moving the party forward.
The decision was part of resolutions reached during the meeting after a unanimous voice vote by participants drawn from the 17 local government areas of the state in attendance, NewsBits observed.
During the meeting tagged, “Uniting the party in support of Tinubu/Shettima renewed Hope Agenda,” the party members recalled how the party was nurtured to a level where it became attractive to all, regretting that these leaders are being suspended by Agballa.
The stakeholders who spoke during the meeting organized under state APC grassroots constituency platform expressed deep concern that rather taking the party to the next level, the Agballah led administration had destroyed the party through unconstitutional suspension of founding fathers of the party in the state such as former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, ex-governor Sullivan Chime, ex-dtate 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 Mrs Tor.
Addressing the stakeholders, Convener of the meeting, Mrs Tor expressed displeasure that Agballah had ruined the party, chasing away the genuine key stakeholders.
She described Enugu APC under Agballah as “suspension party”, saying that they would no longer fold their arms and watch. strangers who joined their fold from other political parties like Agballah destroying the APC through illegal suspensions and other anti-party activities.
Tor said: “It is high time all the purported suspended stakeholders came back to rebuild their home for the success of President Tinubu and APC led Federal Government.
“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 wish the party well keep suspending people who laboured for the party.”
In his remark, Immediate-past chairman of the party and moderator of the meeting, Dr Ben Nwoye, said, “It is unthinkable for anybody to announce the suspension of such number of big wigs of a political party.”
Nwoye condemned in its entirety the idea of running the affairs of the party as a private enterprise by the chairman, calling on the genuine members of the party to come back and rebuild their political house. He noted that the vote of no confidence passed on Agballah had shown that “all is not well with the party in the state and needed the urgent intervention of the national secretariat to salvage the situation.”
Speakers who expressed worries over the autocratic style of the state Chairman, included the pioneer organizing Secretary of the party in the state, Hon. Ifeanyichukwu Edeh, and the APC House of representatives Candidate for Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constituency in the 2023 general election, Dr. Oby Ajih, among others.
