From Chinedu Nwafor Abakaliki
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Enugu State chapter, has cautioned the All Progressives Congress (APC) against dragging it to its internal crisis.
The State leadership of the PDP gave the caution while debunking the insinuation that the party sponsored the protest embarked by aggrieved members of APC over the alleged involvement of the Chairman of the party, Ugochukwu Agballah, and the governorship candidate, Uche Nnaji in N1.3billion fraud.
Addressing a press conference in Enugu on Tuesday, the Director of Communications and Spokesman, Enugu State PDP Campaign Council, Nana Ogbodo, berated the APC for associating the PDP to its woes.
Mr Agballah had accused the PDP of sponsoring the protesters.
Protesters had on Monday stormed APC national secretariat in Abuja alleging that the Chairman of the party, Ugochukwu Agballah, and the governorship candidate, Uche Nnaji, were involved in N1.3billio fraud.
Ogbodo said the PDP had no business with the APC which he said had already collapsed in the state.
He said: “we have, as usual been dragged into a purely APC affair by the loquacious Ugochukwu Agballah, who has claimed that the protesters were sponsored by the PDP. Of course, Agballah’s penchant for looking for scapegoats rather than face his demons is legendary.
“Ordinarily, the Enugu State PDP should have no business with the self-confessed fraud, embezzlement and impunity going on in the Enugu State chapter of the APC, except to say that they have further exposed to the world that they have no good intentions for Enugu State.
“Besides, the APC has never been a factor in elections in Enugu State, let alone now that all the key stakeholders of the APC in Enugu have abandoned the party to Ugochukwu Agballah and his godfathers.
“If the APC was in the ICU before his controversial emergence as the State Chairman, the party has now been effectively embalmed and consigned to the mortuary by the totalitarian, greedy, and corrupt leadership of Agballah and his two godfathers, he said “
According to Ogbodo, the crisis rocking the Enugu State APC is protracted and predates the current electioneering season
“It is on record that even before yesterday’s protest by their aggrieved members, the cream de la creame of the APC in Enugu State had petitioned and physically led a protest to the National Chairman and leadership of the party in August 2022, raising about the same issues highlighted by the Concerned Enugu APC Members yesterday and called for Abgalla’s immediate removal from office and appointment of a caretaker chairman.
“Among the party leaders were the former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; former governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime; former Speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, Hon. Eugene Odoh; former state chairman, Dr. Ben Nwoye; Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu; member of the Police Service Commission, Onyemuche Nnamani, Member of the Federal Character Commission among others
“In any case, some of the issues raised by the APC protesters are self-evident. For instance, we know as a fact that while George Ogara is paraded as the deputy governorship candidate and while his portrait adorns APC campaign posters and billboards, the name of Robert Ngwu is effectively in INEC records and website as the actual deputy governorship candidate of APC Enugu State. Is that not 419? Is that not fraudulent and obtaining by false pretences?
“We are also surprised that Ugochukwu Agballa is just coming out to deny that no dollars were given to APC national convention delegates through him and his governorship candidate; and that no funds were released to him for any nomination forms. But it is a fact that detailed reports on the funds so released have been trending online since November 2022.
“Needless to waste our time on an attention-seeking rabble rouser, who has turned himself to a clergy without congregation,” he said
Ogbodo further called on Chief Ugochukwu Agballah to settle with his aggrieved party members and return to them whatever he had taken from them.
He said: “This is not a fight between the PDP and the APC, it is squarely a fight between angry and deprived APC members and a greedy and conceited party leadership.
“It will be interesting to see Agballah go to court as he boasted. That is the civil thing to do. Probably his aggrieved party members will be able to provide details and showcase his nakedness to the world.
“In any case, if anybody deserves to be sued over this matter, it is Ugochukwu Agballah, who has defamed the Enugu PDP and its governorship candidate by dragging them into a matter that has absolutely nothing to do with them.
“We call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to step in to investigate the weighty allegations boldly made by well-known APC party leaders against the duo of Chief Ugo Agballah and Chief Uche Nnaji,” he said.