Efforts to reunite the warring factions of the Enugu State All Progressives Congress, APC, has again hit the rocks forcing the groups back to their trenches.
Factional chairman of the party in the state Deacon Okey Ogbodo in a statement made availability to the media expressed shock over reports that the two factions have reunited.
He said, “I was appalled to read a false report on-line claiming that the Enugu State Executive Committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC), which I lead had agreed to coalesce into one unified body with the ragtag faction by political desperado, Ben Nwoye.
“May I state, without equivocation, that nothing can be farther from the truth. If I may ask: what could be the attraction or motivation for me, to relinquish the noble mandate freely bestowed on me and my team at a fully convoked state Congress of APC in 2018, to chart a new course for the party in Enugu State?
“The party had suffered perennial electoral losses and misdirection under Nwoye’s misguided, infantile leadership, and the desire for change was unanimous.
“It is a fact of public knowledge that the fugitive gang of Adolphus Udeh and Queen Nwankwo, who were fraudulently touted by Nwoye as “factional leaders”, had long ceased to be members of APC, having been expelled for anti-party activities.
“Mr. Nwoye can always associate, hobnob, or even conspire with like minded co-travellers, but the road to reclaim lost relevance in Enugu APC for him, is going to be tougher and longer!
“Without a doubt, I am Ben Nwoye’s official political nemesis, so he has good reasons to disrespect and/or disregard my person, for all I care, but he cannot wish away Deacon Okey Ogbodo, or the APC authentic state executive committee which i lead.
“For a man desperate to hang on to a leadership position in the party to attempt to dishonour the person and office of Leader of the party and sitting Minister of the Federal Republic, is a joke taken too far!
“Foreign Affairs Minister whom Ben Nwoye’s had severally denigrated and abused, had made it clear on countless occasions, that he was never going to be comfortable with a heavily discredited Nwoye’s returning to lead our state executive.
“But Nwoye’s had no qualms or compunction dropping the Hon. Minister’s name as having approved of any so-called unilateral unification. I ask: is this the level a desperate man can sink?
“The Hon. Minister, as an even -handed leader, and in the interest of the party had, recently encouraged me and my team to give Nwoye and his renegade group the benefit of the doubt, with an olive branch. But as the whole world can see, dropping the Minister’s name in a dubious, phantom unification fraud, is the result of that noble effort!
“It would seem Ben Nwoye would rather annihilate APC in Enugu State, if he has the power, than subscribe to a new, progressive order that would make the party contest and win elections here.
“He has begun to orchestrate this latest, remodelled confusion within APC to sabotage its involvement in the impending by-election in Isi-uzo state constituency.
“But, in reality, Nwoye has never really worked for APC!
“The party faithful and general public are encouraged, indeed advised, to disregard those familiar dubious machinations of Ben Nwoye and his coterie of job-seeking fugitives, as we work silently to reposition our party on the part of electoral viability in Enugu State.
“Mr. Nwoye, as I have said, is always free to associate, hobnob, and even conspire with his like minded outcasts and political jobbers, but when and if he truly desires reintegration into APC mainstream in Enugu state, he should know how to go about that onerous task.
“Name dropping, fugitive-shopping, and cheap media gimmick aren’t the way to go,” Ogbodo concluded.”
The deadlock portends danger to the party ahead the October 31st House of Assembly by-election in the state
