Members of the Enugu State Executive Committee, SEC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have voided the purported expulsion as well as suspension from the party of some prominent and foundation party leaders in Enugu State.
NEWS MEN reports that the state secretary of the party, Robert Ngwu, had on Thursday announced the expulsion of former Governor Sullivan Chime; former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Eugene Odoh; Director General of Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu; former commissioner for Tourism, Ozor Joe Mmamel; Special Assistant to Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Flavour Eze; and former House of Representatives candidate in 2019, Maduka Arum (aka Mama).
Those the secretary announced as suspended are: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; and former Senate President, Ken Nnamani.
However, speaking on journalists, weekend, both the party’s publicity secretary, Mr. Charles Solo-Ako and the State legal adviser, Barr. Jerry Eneh said the reported expulsion and suspension of key party leaders were null and void.
Akoh described the announcement as a reckless show of brigandage, an assault on the party’s constitution and an exercise in futility.
He said that what the state party chairman, Ugochukwu Agballah and the secretary, Ngwu, did was an ambush on the rest of the State Working Committee members of the APC in Enugu State.
He disclosed that there was no petition from anybody against the leaders, nor were their different wards involved, either to have deliberated on such matter, apportioned any blame or referred any such matter to the state level of the party, contrary to the party’s constitution.
“The state executive members of the party who raised objections at such a sudden decision were cajoled. The State Working Committee members were invited as spectators and no committee was set up to investigate the matter.
“There are levels of anti-party activities; when a state chairman dispersed members who are supposed to canvass for votes for the party and the chairman refused for the party to fill candidates that can win election in places such as Nkanu East and Nkanu west, what other form of anti-party can be worse than these?
“What Ugochukwu Agballah did was a predetermined rigging against the APC and in favour of the other parties. As a chairman, he did not vote, so who else could have voted for our party, while he never canvassed for Bola Tinubu.
“The purported suspension of our party leaders did not follow due process at all because it did not emanate from the wards and no Committee was set up to look at any petition. His action was dictatorial and absurd. Ugochukwu Agballah should resign because he said he will resign if the APC loses election in the state.
“He should resign because the party recorded a lesser number of votes far below what we got in the 2019 election. He should resign for his incompetence, nepotism and other acts that made the party lose woefully in the 2023 election,” Ako demanded.
Similarly, the legal adviser, Eneh told journalists that “I am not aware of such expulsion and suspension of political heavyweights from the party in Enugu State.
“His Excellency Ken Nnamani, His Excellency Sullivan Chime, His Excellency Geoffrey Onyeama, all of them came from different wards. If they are to be suspended, it has to be from their wards, to local government, then State.
“None of them registered in the State or Abuja as a member of the APC; they registered in their wards. So, suspension should start from wards to state, to the national, that is what the party constitution says.
“Suspending them without going through due process is like embarking on a frivolous voyage. As far as I am concerned, such suspension is null and void under the APC constitution.
“There is also what we call letting the other person be heard,” he said, adding that the party leaders were not heard before the said suspension.
“So, it goes to no issue because the various wards did not say they suspended anybody,” he added.
Similarly, the Udi/Agbudu ward in Udi local local government council area, where ex-Governor Chime, Chief Flavour Eze and the state party chairman, Agballah, hail from, have passed vote of confidence on Chime and Eze.
They repudiated Agballah and washed their hands off any case of disciplinary action against Chime and Eze.
The Udi/Agbudu ward chairman, Ferdinand Aduma and the ward secretary, Chukwuma Onyia, in a letter said, “We the members of Udi/Agbudu Ward in Udi LGA, hereby pass vote of confidence on our leaders: HE. Sullivan Chime and Chief Flavour Eze. HE. Sullivan Chime and Chef Flavour Eze are foremost leaders and stakeholders in our ward.
“We wish to inform the members of our party and the general public that our leaders– HE. Sullivan Chime and Chief Flavour Eze are very committed and supportive members of our great party – All Progressives Congress, APC, in our ward.
“We are surprised to hear that the state has expelled them from our party. We totally condemn such acts taken by the State without recourse to his ward. We therefore exonerate ourselves from such unconstitutional action taken against our leader whom all of us look up to. All the party organs are by this notice advised to disregard such purported suspension.”