ENUGU APC FACTION CHAIRMAN DENIES SETTLING RIFT WITH RIVAL
By Blessing Ajah
Deacon Okey Ogbodo, chairman of one of the factions of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State contending for supremacy has denied reaching agreement with Ben Nwoye, chairman of the other faction.
Ogbodo, who in a statement issued to journalists expressed shock over reports trending online that the two factions of the party have united, said the report is far from truth.
For him, there is no attraction to give up the noble mandate given freely to him by the party.
He described Ben Nwoye as a “political desperado”, and tagged his faction a disorganized group.
Ogbodo said the APC in Enugu State suffered electoral losses as a result of Nwoye’s “misguided, infantile leadership”.
He described himself as Nwoye’s official political nemesis noting that he ( Nwoye) cannot wish away the APC’s authentic state executive committee, which he leads. He said:
“I was appalled to read a false report online 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.
Ogbodo said it was a matter 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,” Ogbodo stated.
He stated that Nwoye’s desperate attempt to hang onto office and to attempt to dishonour the person and office of the leader of the party in the state, and a sitting Minister of the Federal Republic, was “a joke taken too far!”
“The 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 returning to lead our state executive. But Nwoye 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?”
He the minister as an even -handed leader, and in the interest of the party had, recently encouraged him and his team to give Nwoye and his faction the benefit of the doubt, with an olive branch. But that had become apparent, he had resorted to “dropping the Minister’s name in a dubious, phantom unification fraud”.
“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,” he said.
He noted that in reality, Nwoye had never really worked for the APC and urged party faithful and the public to disregard those familiar with the dubious “machinations of Ben Nwoye and his coterie of job-seeking fugitives”a he (Ogbodo) and his team work silently to reposition the APC 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 stated.
