The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State took a new turn on Wednesday as leaders of the party boycotted the campaign rally of its presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the state.
The Quest Times gathered that Tinubu was in Enugu for the state presidential campaign rally at Michael Okpara square where he promised to resume Eastern corridor locomotive railways, extending it to Calabar, Anambra and other Eastern parts of Nigeria.
Earlier, leaders of the party in the State received Tinubu at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu and disappeared from there.
APC chieftains in the state including the Foreign Affairs minister, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama; former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani; former Enugu Governor, Barr. Sullivan Chime; former Speaker, Enugu State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Eugene Odoh; former Secretary to the Enugu State Government, Chief Onyemuche Nnamani, among others boycotted the event.
However, briefing journalists at his residence, the former Governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime said that the party leaders were at the airport to receive Tinubu but due to the internal issues they had with the state chairman, Chief Ugochukwu Agballah, they would not appear at the rally.
Chime recalled that the stakeholders had staged a peaceful protest at its National Secretariat in Abuja over the chairman’s attitude and regretted that nothing was done about it.
The former governor said that someone not known by the party emerged as the party chairman and since then, the party had been in disarray.
He also complained that the governorship candidate of the party and the deputy were from the same senatorial zone noting that it had never happened since the history of democracy.
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The former governor said they would all work hard to ensure APC’s victory during the general election but they were left with no option but to distance themselves from such an illegal act.
While expressing his anger, the former Senate President, Ken Nnamani said the party had external interference. He said that the party chairman in the state and the governorship candidate were running the party like a sole administrator.
Nnamani said that they neglected their leaders in all the party’s activities pointing out that the calibre of people they had in APC were people that could take the party to a greater height.
He, however, said that if the mess did not stop, there would be no peace in the state.
Also contributing, the former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Chief Eugene Odoh, said that the rally was not witnessed by the party leaders in the state due to the chairman’s attitude towards party members.
Odoh explained that Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo state as the leader of the party in South East should ensure the unity of the party instead of using mediocrity to run the party.
He, therefore, said that the stakeholders in the state had decided to distance themselves from such a childish act.
Meanwhile, at the campaign rally, Tinubu begged for South East support, assured that he would make Igboland an industrial hub if elected.