The Acting Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State, Alphonsus Nwafor, has said the party’s National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, does not participate in illegal gatherings.
Nwafor stated this in a statement issued in Enugu and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday.
He said that it was not true that Ganduje sent a representative to the meeting of August 24 in Enugu, which he described as a “charade”.
He alleged that the former state Chairman of the party, Mr Ugochukwu Agballah, organised the meeting “with co-travellers, despite a court order, prohibiting him from such impersonation”.
Nwafor stated: “The national chairman of our party does not participate in illegal gatherings and has never found himself in the wrong side of the law.
“We have taken note of the aberration and impersonations that took place on Saturday, August 24 in our party office at the GRA Enugu.
“The impunity was further perpetuated with the dropping of the name of the National Chairman of our Party, Dr Abdulahi Ganduje, as being represented by Emma Enukwu.
“In their premeditated plot to sink APC in the state, the former leadership of the party, under Mr Ugochukwu Agballah, ensured that there was no post-election intra-party activities to improve on its last electoral performance.”
Nwafor stated that APC performed “abysmally poor” in 2023, “compared to the other two general elections that it has participated in since its formation in 2014”.
He further alleged that Agballah’s leadership was on a mission to “disorganise the party and crumble it as dictated by their paymaster”.
Nwafor also stated that the decline in the party’s fortune from 2015 to 2023 presidential elections validated his assertion.
He stated: “In the 2015 presidential election in the state, APC scored 14,157 votes, representing 2.47 per cent.
“In the 2019 presidential poll, APC got 54,423 votes, an increase to 12.93 per cent.
“But with the party’s slide into the hands of Ugochukwu Agballah and his group, APC’s growing fortunes waned in the state.”
According to Nwafor, the party scored only 4,772 votes, representing 1.04 per cent, in the 2023 presidential election in the state.
He described the scenario as “shameful for our party”.
He noted that APC performed better in Anambra, where the Labour Party’s Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi, hails from.
He pointed out that APC got higher votes (5,101) in Anambra than Enugu state in 2023, Obi’s influence notwithstanding.
“Thus, with the above performance index, it’s very discernible that the Enugu State APC, under the watch of the then Chairman, Agballah, failed woefully.
“There is no better word to describe him than a ‘mole’ in APC in the state,” Nwafor added.
He also stated that the court order, “restraining Agballah and co. from parading themselves as executive members of the state Chapter of APC is still in force.
“The National Secretariat of APC and the general public are, therefore, updated with this development.
“At this moment, the unification of our party is most paramount to us and we urge our teaming members, old and new, to embrace the new and refreshing breeze in our party, particularly as we hold our stakeholders’ meeting in September,” Nwafor added.
When contacted for his reaction to the issues raised against him, Agballah said that he could not join issues with anybody.
He stated that “Enugu APC is one body and will continue to remain one”.