THE ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC) IS NOT PART OF ENUGU STATE’S SHENANIGAN OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION HOLDING ON 21st SEPT 2024.
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 Chŕistian 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.
The APC National Chairman threatened to file a suit against the Commission if it continues to deal with faceless persons unknown to the party with regard to the forthcoming LG poll in the state
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.
The letter reads, “Our attention has been drawn to your Commission’s 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 the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State in violation of the Constitution of APC and the extant laws in Nigeria…
“Your Commission has 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.
“We state that the actions of your 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 National Chairman of APC 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.
“Take notice that if your Commission fails, neglects and refuses to desist from further undue interference with the Control, Management and Administration of All Progressives Congress (especially in Enugu State), as it relates to, connected with and arising from the forthcoming Local Government Election in Enugu State, the party will be left with no other option than to instruct our lawyers to seek redress before a Court of Law without further recourse to your Commission,” he warned.
Meanwhile as ENSIEC proceeded in its predetermined wrong direction, APC instituted 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.
This national leadership of APC had through a communique at the APC Enugu State stakeholders meeting in August 2024, where the APC National Chairman, H.E Dr. Abdullahi Gamduje was represented by the National Deputy chairman South, Chief Emmanuel Eneukwu called on party faithful and general public to disregard the antics of fifth columnists, paid moles and political merchants citing the fact that the ruling party in the state, the PDP and the state government had always over the years looked for some willing tools within and outside APC Enugu State to use in causing division in the party so as to justify the impunity of ENSIEC in giving PDP undue advantage during LG council elections.
The party earlier made it abundantly clear through the APC national Vice Chairman Southeast, Dr. Ijeomah Arodiogbu that Alphonsus Nwafor and cohorts are faceless individuals who are unknown to the party and that there was no division whatsoever in Apc Enugu State, reaffirming that The Hon Barr Ugochukwu H. Agballah remains the party’s Enugu state Chairman.
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.
It’s pertinent to note that aside from APC’s suit, there are more than 30 law suits from other political parties against ENSIEC over multiple constitutional infractions leading to the conduct of the local government election.
From all indications, therefore, the local government elections in Enugu State holding today is doomed from the start. From the failure to issue adequate notice of election in accordance with Section 28 of the Electoral Act, 2022 to breach of the requirement of submission of list of candidates not later than 180 days, to the date scheduled for election as provided in Section 29 of the Electoral Act.
Similarly a situation ENSIEC provided just 14 days for campaigns against the 150 days provided for in Section 94 of the Electoral Act, and the failure to issue notice of polls as provided in Section 44 of the Electoral Act, are all issues under litigation, yet the Commission went ahead to conduct the sham local government election.
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.
Signed
Titus Onyekachi Ezeagu
(APC Pub. Secretary
Enugu State )
