Enugu: APC candidates may lose 2023 elections, party chieftains warn

Major stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu have said APC is not ready for the 2023 general elections and warned that the party’s gubernatorial candidate and other flag bearers are unlikely to win in the 2023 general elections. 

Arising from a stakeholders’ meeting on Sunday in Enugu, the party chieftains reiterated their resolve to institute a caretaker committee to oversee the party’s activities leading to the elections.

Ex-Senate President Ken Nnamani said the party did not seem attractive to prospective members due to the leadership style of its chairman, Ugochukwu Agballa.

“We feel the party is not going the way it should go. There is danger ahead as people are leaving our party. For only one person to contest our party’s gubernatorial primaries shows we are not attractive, and most of our flag bearers are those most unlikely to win elections. Candidates of other parties have been coming to us to appeal for our support, but ours are not coming,” said Mr Nnamani.

The APC chief added that other party chieftains would do everything possible to rescue the party and save it from implosion, adding that a fractured party would not do well in elections.

Also, ex-Governor Sullivan Chime described Mr Agballa as an “impostor” bent on destroying APC in Enugu. 

“It is strange that I do not know any candidate from House of Assembly to Senate from my constituency and zone. I do not know who our candidates are. For the governorship candidate, I am hearing it as a rumour though it happens to be the person I knew from a distance,” the former governor explained. “The last time I saw him was during Governor Chimaroke Nnamani’s administration. I have not seen him since he emerged.”

Mr Chime mentioned that the 2023 elections should be about electing politicians who would be useful to the party and the people.

“I do not think I will be part of any arrangement to vote for someone I do not know. It is very clear to me how our presidential candidate emerged, and no one said he was imposed on us,” said Mr Chime. “Therefore, I have a duty to support him. I will not just vote for him but will talk about him when I have the opportunity, but I do not know the others and how they emerged.”

Another party chieftain, Gbazuagu Nweke, stressed that “those who knew Agballa were opposed to him because they knew his conduct.”

“Our leaders, by accepting him, made every effort with good intentions, but he started a systematic dismantling of every known structure after his emergence,” Mr Nweke. “We cannot leave the party for Agballa. Our position is that he must go. He has squandered the opportunity given to him. He has no respect and character.”

Also, the ward chairman of Udi/Agbudu, Ferdinand Aguma, said they had suspended and expelled Agballah from the party over gross misconduct and falsifying the party membership card.

Mr Aguma said the ward executives received a petition against the embattled chairman.

“We set up a disciplinary committee to investigate the petition. Letters were sent to him, but he did not honour the invitation. We eventually found out that he did not resign his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before his romance with the APC. As we speak, Agballah is not registered with us,” he said.

Mr Aguma further mentioned that they acted in accordance with the APC Constitution in suspending and expelling Mr Agballah.

In his reaction, Mr Agballah said the APC chieftains did not follow due process in their attempt to remove him.

Also, the gubernatorial candidate of the party in the state, Uche Nnaji, said those chieftains opposed to the chairman were after the election fund accruable to Enugu.

Mr Nnaji explained that he would advise the party’s national leadership not to send any campaign and election money to the state.

Among APC chieftains that attended the meeting included foreign affairs minister Geoffrey Onyeama, the South-East representative in the Police Service Commission, Onyemuche Nnamani, speaker of the Enugu assembly, Eugene Odoh, Vin-Martins Ilo, Adolphus Udeh, Joe Mmamel, Iyke Ugwuegede and Adolphus Udeh.

(NAN)