APC expels ex-Governor, Chime, suspends Okechukwu, Onyeama, others
From Chinedu Nwafor Abakaliki
The Enugu State Executive Committee (SEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday announced the expulsion of prominent members of the party, who allegedly worked against the party during the just concluded general elections.
The party also suspended some of the accused party Chieftians from the party.
Those expelled are: former Gov 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, Flavour Eze; and former House of Rep candidate in 2019, Maduka Arum (AKA Mama).
Those suspended include: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and former Senate President, Ken Nnamani.
The State Secretary of APC, Robert Ngwu (PhD), who addressed a press conference at the end of the party’s SEC meeting, and presented the report of the party’s Disciplinary and Fact Finding Committee, recommendations which were ratified by the SEC during her meeting.
Ngwu said:”The Party is fully aware of the nefarious activities of the previous administration of the Party in the 2015 and 2019 General Elections.
“With that in mind, the Party reviewed various petitions and reports from the Fact-Finding Committee, and the disciplinary committee against some individuals.
“They are Sen. Ken Nnamani, Barr. Sullivan Chime, Hon. Geoffrey Onyeama, Hon. Eugene Odoh, Mr Osita Okechukwu, and others, (Ozor Joe Mmamel, Mr Maduka Arum, and Mr Flavor Eze) from their different local government areas. The petition bothered on anti-party activities and other offences against the APC.”
While the party alleged that Sen Ken Nnamani and Sullivan Chime openly endorsed and campaigned for the governorship candidate of Tue Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Peter Mbah; Geoffrey Onyeama and his SA, Flavour Eze, campaigned for the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, and worked for the Governorship candidate of PDP, Mbah, using federal government palliatives like Cooking Stove, Wrappers, rice and garri.
The report alleged that the VON-DG, Okechukwu; former Speaker, Odoh; former Commissioner, Mmamel and Maduka Arum similarly engaged in different forms of anti-party activities which negatively affected the party’s performance in the state.
The State secretary stated that after conducting a thorough investigation into the allegations of anti-party activities levelled against the respective party leaders, it was regrettably confirmed that the reports and evidences gathered by the fact-finding committee points to their guilt.
The SEC therefore ratified the expulsion and suspension of the party leaders and forwarded the resolution to the Zonal Working Committee of the party for further action.
In a remark, the state chairman of the party, Barr Ugochukwu Agballah said that the party was in the process of instilling discipline and would not shy away from taking on any member of the party whose activities impacted negatively against the party during the elections, no matter how highly placed.
Agballah said, “the purging of the party is a continuous exercise and we believe that by expelling some earring members, the crisis we have witnessed over the years would be stemmed.”
