The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State has disassociated itself from Saturday’s local government election, labeling anyone claiming to represent the party as impostors.
In a statement, APC’s acting publicity secretary, Titus Ezeagu, revealed that the party had initially fielded candidates for Chairmanship and Councillorship positions in all 260 wards and 17 local government areas. However, the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) allegedly excluded APC and disenfranchised its candidates.
The party clarified that it fielded Councillorship and Chairmanship candidates in the 260 Wards and 17 Local Government Areas respectively, but that the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC), excluded the party and disenfranchised her candidates from contesting.
He said that instead, ENSIEC decided to work with “faceless people” who submitted fake list which the Commission published as party’s candidates, while ignoring the authentic list from the authentic State working committee under the Chairmanship of the Hon. Barr Ugochukwu H. Agballah.
The publicity secretary noted that the party had already dragged the electoral body to court seeking to Nullify the exercise, which it described as a “sham”.
The statement reads, “The All Progressives Congress (APC) Enugu State wishes to place it on record that it is not part of the local government election being conducted by the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) today being September 21, 2024.
“APC Enugu State was hitherto willing to participate and indeed submitted list of Chairmanship and Councillorship candidates for the election but the Prof Christian C. Ngwu led ENSIEC, being the puppet of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, received the list but decided to exclude the party, and disenfranchise its 260 Councillorship, and 17 Chairmanship candidates.
“Ahead of the election, APC had observed the partisan disposition of ENSIEC, a development that prompted the National Chairman of our great party, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to write a letter to the Chairman of ENSIEC warning the Commission of legal consequences should the Commission fail to work with the authentic State Executive Committee of APC in Enugu state under the leadership of The Hon Barr Ugochukwu H. Agballah.
“The National Chairman of APC in the letter accused ENSIEC of undermining the party in Enugu state.
“Dr. Ganduje reiterated that The Hon Barr Ugochukwu H. Agballah remains the Chairman of APC in Enugu state and should serve as the bridge between the Party and ENSIEC.
“In the letter dated August 26, 2024, which he personally signed and addressed to Prof. Christian C. Ngwu, Chairman of ENSIEC, Dr. Ganduje made it clear that the Commission had continued to deal with a faceless group as the elected officers of APC in Enugu state without verification, diligent enquiry or official communication with or from the Party.”
Ezeagu quoted the national Chairman of APC of accusing ENSIEC of meddling with, and undue interference with the Management, Control and Administration of the All Progressives Congress as a political party especially in Enugu State by Commission’s recognition and acceptance of a group of faceless persons who are unknown to the party as the authorized officers of APC and the extant laws in Nigeria.
He said that Dr. Ganduje accused the Commission of having, on its own accord, chosen to engage with a group of faceless people who were neither elected officers of the party or accredited representatives of the party for the purposes of the conduct of the October 5th 2024 Local Government Elections in Enugu State.
The national chairman, according to him had warned that the “The Commission violates the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 under which the All Progressives Congress was lawfully registered.
“Kindly be informed that the Hon Ugochukwu H. Agballah is the duly elected and recognized State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State and is the only officer authorized by our party to submit names for the Chairmanship and Councillorship election that would be conducted by your electoral commission.”
The publicity secretary stated that the the National Chairman of APC had informed ENSIEC that APC as a political party was not a party to any law suit before a Court of competent jurisdiction in Enugu State or under any restrictive order of any kind whatsoever.
Ezeagu stressed that despite the warning letter from Dr. Ganduje, ENSIEC proceeded in its predetermined wrong direction, a development that prompted APC to institute a lawsuit in an Abuja High Court against ENSIEC for unlawful exclusion from the election.
“The Suit N0. FHC/ABJ/CS/ 2024, is still very much active and ongoing and we believe that in due course the shenanigans by ENSIEC in the name of local government election will be nullified and a proper election in which APC candidates will be part of, conducted.
“It’s therefore pertinent to inform the general public that anybody purporting to be contesting chairmanship or Councillorship position under APC is fake and most probably a PDP member dressed in the garment of APC.
“We want to state categorically that APC is not participating in the local government election not because it didn’t want to, but because it was excluded and her candidates disenfranchised and the party is in court seeking to nullify the charade that went on in Enugu today 21st Sept.
“As a supposedly “independent” electoral commission, we had expected that ENSIEC should have assumed a neutral stance in the affairs of political parties, but the brazen manner in which it interfered to recognize Alphonsus and co who are not known to APC, citing a court order in which neither it (ENSIEC) nor the party APC are parties to, amounts to enforcing a judgement that has nothing to do with the party moreso when the said judicial order was for only seven days and when the court never made any order whatsoever recognizing Alphonsus Onyeacho as the Enugu state chairman of APC.
“We therefore assure our party faithful and all the disenfranchised candidates of our party, that we will not rest until justice is done. This sham election must be nullified and justifiably so.”
