Our Reporter
Members of the State Working Committee (SWC) of All Progressives Congress (APC), Enugu State chapter have dissociated themselves from the suspension and expulsion of some founding members of the party in the state by the State Chairman, Ugochukwu Agballa.
In a world press conference in Enugu at the weekend, the SWC members said they rejected the action of Agballa because it lacked legitimacy and due process.
The State Publicity Secretary of the party, Charles Ako, said that Agballa acted unilaterally without consultations and due process.
He said that the state chairman’s dictatorial tendencies had become a bad omen to the party in the state and called for his immediate resignation and unreserved apologies to the affected leaders of the party for his actions.
“Ugo Agballa should resign his position immediately and tender unreserved apologies to our party big wigs for such embarrassing actions.
“Agballa’s action is dictatorial, tyrannical, unilateral and baseless, it will never stand. It is dead on arrival,” he said.
According to him, the failure of APC in Enugu state at the Presidential/National Assembly elections was caused by the same state chairman owing to his highhandedness and insensitivity.
He accused the state chairman of lack of vision to move the party forward in the state, adding that he should toe the part of honour by relinquishing his position as “quickly” as possible.
Also speaking, the State Legal Adviser, Jerry Ene, described the purported sacking of some prominent members of the party as “null, void and of no effect.”
Ene said that the suspension and expulsion did not follow APC’s rules and regulations guiding such actions.
“As a member of SWC in the state, I consider such suspension and expulsion as illegal, ultra vires, null and void, and of no effect,” he said.
The legal practitioner said that under the APC constitution, suspension begins from the ward level to local government chapter, to the state and national.
“Those suspended including Sen. Ken Nnamani, Geoffrey Onyeama, Sullivan Chime and others, did not register in Abuja, they registered at their various wards.
“So, how can you come to Enugu and just announce their suspension and subsequent expulsion without recourse to their wards and without consulting the SWC.
“Under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the APC constitution, were they given a fair hearing. If you accuse someone of any offence, you give the person a right of fair hearing,” he said.
He added that those suspended were the pillars of the party in Enugu State both financially and otherwise.
“And you just wake up from your bed and call a press conference to announce their suspension and expulsion, that is a joke taking too far,” he said.
It would be recalled that the state chapter of APC has been enmeshed in crisis including accusations of fraud, anti-party and power control leading to factions and subsequent suspension and expulsion of some of her chieftains
Those purportedly suspended and expelled include former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, Current minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, former Gov. Sullivan Chime, former Speaker of Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Eugene Odo, current DG of Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu among others.
