The Board of Trustees, BOT, member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Gen. Joseph Okoloagu (retd.), on Monday, said the party was ready to occupy the Enugu Lion Building in 2023.
Loading ...Okoloagu, who was reacting to his alleged expulsion from the party with 40 others by the former Caretaker Committee Chairman, Dr Ben Nwoye, said if he wasn’t removed, APC would have continued to be an appendage to PDP in the state.
He said that a BoT member often he would go out to be ashamed to say he is from Enugu state because of the crisis in the party.
“You know at times I will go for function and will be very ashamed to say I am from Enugu state yet I am the BoT because this is the only state where the party can’t function.”
The embattled Nwoye, who was removed by 40 members of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the party on August 10, 2021 for an sundry issues, was on Sunday, while addressing journalists announced expulsion of 41 members of the party including former Governor, Sullivan Chime and the BoT member, Gen. Okoloagu.
He said they were being expelled from the party for alleged violation of the party’s constitution.
But, addressing journalists in his house on Monday, the BoT member, described the expulsion as a joke of the highest order, saying that he (Nwoye) lacks the power to suspend or expel him having been already removed and ratified by the National Extraordinary Convention Committee as the chairman of the party.
“When you leave here let the world know that Ben Nwoye is suspended and his suspension is approved by the national leadership of the party. And that the major reason for removing him is that he has not been working for the interest of the APC but has been working for the interest of PDP in Enugu State.
He is removed and he was removed by his people, members of his executive, that is people he is now expelling.
“Assuming but not conceding that we are expelled; as at the time he was giving his judgement he was no longer in a position to do so because he has long seized to be the chairman of the party right from the day he was removed as the chairman by his executive and the national headquarters approved it.”
He said that for six years Nwoye was the Chairman of the party, he could not win a single Councillorship or Chairmanship for the party because he was in the payroll of the ruling PDP government in the state.
He said “Igbo Land particularly in Enugu State they have acquired politics. So we are changing the young man that moved in to know the system and he now found out that the leadership and executive are in the payroll of the state and that is why we cannot do otherwise. So you can’t win election here. I have no apologies, I am one of those who said for us to win an election here we have to dispense with those people who have held us down.
“We can’t continue harbouring a mole because this party have to move forward. If we don’t remove Ben Nwoye now and allow him to oversee these congresses we will achieve nothing. Tell me any chairman of a political party that will be proud to announce as the chairman of a major ruling political party for six years – Ben Nwoye was the chairman of APC in Enugu State yet we don’t have a single Council chairman.”
Okoloagu, however, said that now the party had successfully conducted ward and local government congresses, and executives in place, the party was ready to takeover the leadership of the state in 2023.
“There is crisis in APC Enugu State because we want to take hold of our party to win an election. Watch and see what will happen in 2023 because we have now weeded out the moles in our midst.
“So the implication is that we have discovered our bearing now and by 2023 we are going to takeover the Enugu Lion Building. Not what if, now we have structures.”
