Some cars belonging to members of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State, have been destroyed by suspected factional leaders of the party in Umuahia during the party’s State Congress.
During the said fracas, a female member of APGA who is a widow was also slapped by a rampaging group of men that stormed the Congress venues.
These narrations were rendered by Ambassador Onukwubiri Sunday, the newly elected Chairman of the mainstream APGA in Abia while addressing the press on Wednesday.
He stated that he was duly elected as the new State Chairman of APGA by members of his party in an election conducted and observed by members from national Secretariat of the party, in Abuja who he said, certified the Congress free, fair and transparent.
Lamentably, Onukwubiri Sunday said that before the congress, a group of invaders led by some House of Assembly candidates in the last general election, including Hon Chinedum Obilor (Iyierioba) and Emmanuel Egwu (Esere ) had allegedly invaded the State secretariat of APGA in Umuahia, and took over the facility without the consent of the outgoing Chairman, Rev Augustine Ehiemere.
To avoid bloodshed, Ambassador Sunday said that they decided to shift the congress to a holt in another area of Umuahia but the same group of invaders still stormed the hotel and threatened to burn vehicles belonging to members.
The new APGA Chairman said it took the intervention of the hotel management for they not to succeed in their attempts to set the vehicles ablaze. He regretted that the attackers used knife to vandalize some of the vehicles and even went ahead to slap a widow during the hotel attack.
His words, “The Congress was well -conducted by the panel sent by the national leadership of the party, led by Anselm Chinedu Nebuife.
”They came and had the ward congress, they held the LGA congress and yesterday was the height of it in the State level, they conducted the State congress and I , Ambassador Onukwubiri Sunday emerged as the authentic State chairman of the party .
I am presently the Abia APGA State Chairman-Elect” “The congress was supposed to be held in the party Secretariat, but few people wanted to cause problem and started organizing meeting at the party office without the consent of the State chairman Rev Ehiemere and the State working committee of the party.
They planned to disorganize the congress and to avoid bloodshed, we made a shift of the venue to Demerit hotel at Amafor and all of a sudden, the same people and their group came to the Demerit hotel and threatened to burn the vehicles.It took the effort of the management of the hotel to stop them.
” We left to the Paragon view hotel at Isi court because we have been organizing event there and our people waited until the national leadership arrived and we had the congress successfully and by God’s grace as soon as we finished and were exchanging pleasantries the same group of people came with a knife.
“It was knife that they used to pieces our vehicles that is high level of desperation. We had just given them tickets to run for the State House of Assembly recently.
“Even Iyierioba slapped a married woman because the woman is a widow,it was when we invited Ubakala police officers that came and rescued us from them.”
He pointed out that the State Working Committee of the party in Abia zoned key positions to different areas, explaining that the position of State Chairman was zoned to Abia North, the position of the State Secretary was zoned to Abia South, while that of Women leader was zoned to Abia central district.
Sunday said only his own election was authentic and dismissed the emergence of another Chairman, saying only his victory was recognized by the national secretariat of the party.
He condemned the behavior of party members who allowed themselves as willing tools to destabilize APGA and advised them to retrace their steps. He promised that his tenure would witness transformation and all-inclusive era for members, adding that the fortunes of the party would regain its speed under his leadership.
Meanwhile, Chief Emmanuel Egwu who emerged as the State Chairman of APGA during another congress held elsewhere in Umuahia has denied instigating any violence during the congress. Rather, he said his election was peaceful and was done in a unanimous vote from members.
Egwu who is popularly known as Esere, assured that it would be a new era of transformation for the party and invited all members to rally round his leadership to achieve the desired goals.
Egwu assured that an all-inclusive and innovative style of governance would be introduced into APGA, warning that the days of impunity were over in the party as according to him, no form of indiscipline would be tolerated, saying that transparency would be used in running the party.
He alleged that APGA was dying before his emergence as a result of mismanagement by the immediate -past executives which he said, affected the performances of APGA in the last general election “APGA is dying.
All hands must be on deck, let us take this party to greater height” Egwu said. He gave insight that his administration would prove the former administration of Rev Augustine Ehiemere. Hon Chinedum Obilor, aka Iyierioba could not be met to speak on the allegations that he slapped a poor widow.
It would be recalled that Chief Emmanuel Egwu was the House of Assembly candidate of APGA for Umuahia South while Hon Chinedum Obilor was also the APGA candidate for Umuahia central constituencies where they were defeated by LP candidates.
