The Enugu State Executive Committee, SEC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has slammed the party’s state chairman, Ugochukwu Agballa for unilaterally suspending and expelling dome of the partys leaders in the state
The SEC described as illegal, the purported expulsion and suspension of some of its leaders by the party state chairman, Ugo Agballa and Secretary, Robert Ngwu, saying it lacked due process
The state secretary, 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).
He also announced the suspension of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; and former Senate President, Ken Nnamani.
Upturning the decision at the weekend, Legal Adviser of the party, Jerry Eneh, who spoke to journalists in the company of the party’s publicity secretary, Mr. Charles Solo-Ako, 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, adding 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.
