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Tag: Ben Nwoye

  • APC bounces back in Enugu guber race

    …calls for postponement of election in Enugu

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) Thursday bounced back into contention for the Governorship election in Enugu state.

    The party’s gubernatorial campaign had been jeopardized as a result of judicial process which denied the standard bearer,  his ticket.

    A governorship aspirant in a faction of the party, George Ogara had succeeded in an Abuja High Court in upstaging Ayogu as the candidate.

    But the Appeal Court Thursday quashed the Abuja High Court and reinstated Ayogu.

    Thousands of enthusiastic supporters on Thursday received Ayogu at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport with pomp and pageantry.

    Ayogu told reporters that he was back and would definitely win the election on Saturday.

    He said the judgment that led to the removal of his name suppose not to be adding that it was politically manipulated.

    Read Also: Enugu: Election and its aftermath

    “But come May 29, 2019 your brother who is talking to you now will be sworn in as the governor of Enugu state.

    “They cannot stop it. The will be swept by a tsunami which they can’t explain where it come from,” said Eze.

    He thanked his numerous supporters for exercising patience while the judicial process was on.

    The chairman of the party in the state, Dr Ben Nwoye in his contribution, called for the postponement of the election in Enugu state to allow their candidate campaign for some time.

    He said the party is insisting that the Independent National Electoral Commission to immediately relist the name of Ayogu Eze as their standard bearer.

    The party chairman led thousands of party supporters to throng the INEC office in protest to that effect.

  • APC rejects election in Enugu, calls for cancellation

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the conducted of the election held Saturday in Enugu describing it as an aberration.

    The party called for the cancellation of the election in Enugu even before the release of the result.

    At the conference were the standard bearer of the party in the state, Senator Ayogu Eze, the Enugu east senator candidate, Prince Lawrence Eze, the Enugu west senatorial candidate, Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu and the candidate of Enugu north, Hon Eugene Odoh.

    The state chairman of the party, Dr Ben Nwoye who addressed reporters in Enugu yesterday alleged among other things that there were imported election officials that conducted the election in the state.

    He as well alleged that the INEC officials compromised with the evidence that the collated results by the he officials were higher than the accredited voters.

    In addition, he said that there were evidence of financial inducements and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) prepared meals for the voters in each polling centres.

    Read Also: APC, PDP in tight race in Edo

    Nwoye also accused the NYSC in the election conduct of being involved in financial inducements.

    He did not spare the security agencies. According to him, the Divisional Police Officers (DPO’s) in the local councils compromised and collaborated in the election malpractice.

    “The election in Enugu state is an aberration and we are calling for total cancellation of the election.

    “It is evident during voting that there were some manipulations going on in the election.

    “We cannot accept the result,” Nwoye declared.

  • Enugu APC chairman escapes assassination

    The Enugu state chairman of the All Progressives Congress ( APC), Dr. Ben Nwoye, escaped death by whiskers in the early hours of Saturday, as heavily armed suspected assassins invaded his Enugu residence.

    According to Nwoye, the hoodlums, who gained entrance into the compound at about 2:15 am,  shot one of the police officers attached to him, Mr. Gerald Eke, on the head, and took away his official riffle.

    The officer, who hails from Nsukka, Enugu state, is currently on admission at the Federal Orthopedic Hospital Enugu.

  • APC Convention: Enugu APC, endorses Enukwu, Izunaso, Moghalu for Second term

    Ahead of  the national convention of the  All Progressives Congress (APC), the Enugu State chapter of the party has endorsed the incumbent national Vice Chairman, South-East, Chief Emma Eneukwu, national organizing Secretary Senator Osita Izunaso and National Auditor George Moghalu for re-election

    The endorsement was announced in a communique issued at the end of its meeting held  at the party’s secretariat on Friday.

    The sate chairman of the party, Dr Ben Nwoye who read the communique issued at the end of the meeting, which was also attended by the State Working Committee members of the party, said all the existing zoning arrangements of the party remains.

    The development is not unconnected to a press statement issued by a group in the State, which is sympathetic to a former Secretary to Enugu state government, Chief Onyemuche Nnamani as Eneukwu’s replacement.

    But the party said such group should be dis countenanced as they were only merely in a task to destabilize the APC in Enugu State and eventually deny President Muhammadu Buhari votes in 2019.

    The communique read in part, “Chief Hon. Emma Eneukwu having performed excellently well and being an indigene of Udi Local Government Area has the support of the entire Enugu State delegates to the APC national convention.

    Read Also: Police pledge hitch-free Sallah celebration in Enugu

    “That we condemn in totality any attempt by anybody no matter how highly placed to destabilize the agreed zoning arrangement in the State, previously established by leaders of the party in 2014, as it relates to party positions.

    “That we commend the national convention committee of the APC in all of its efforts in planning a hitch-free national convention.

    “Enugu State APC cannot be cowed by anybody, no matter any previous position you may have held, or the position the person may occupy. We must learn that new leaders must emerge, we can’t continue to lead this country with our past glory.

    “Every day new leaders emerge, the world is calling for new leaders. Very recently, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Not Too Young to Run Bill into law, this shows progressive leadership.

    “Those who have been either past governor, past senator or past this or that must allow new leaders to emerge, must allow those who are leading well to lead. We cannot be cowed by those who joined us from PDP.

    “If PDP was a great party, where they had served as either senator or SSG, they should have remained in PDP; we built APC, we established APC in Enugu State. So, we cannot be pushed around.

    “People believe that politics is about their village, that politics is about those who bear the same surname with them.

    “Today, Enugu State APC has taken a stand, we cannot have a state chairman from Nkanu West and Vice Chairman, Nkanu West it can’t help us in election. People here are not in APC because Buhari won, they have been here even when APC was yet to be accepted, when people called us all sorts of names, including Boko Haram. Some of us we almost ostracized. We cannot, therefore, at this stage allow latter day converts push us aside.

    “For emphasis, Emma Enuekwu, George Moghalu, Osita Izunaso are our choice, we are 100 percent behind our leaders,” it further stated.

  • No APC member joined PDP in Enugu, says party chairman

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State says none of its members has joined any other political party in the last two years.

    The party said on Sunday that, on the contrary, it had become the new bride in the state as some members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and some others defected to its fold.
    The state Chairman of the party, Dr. Ben Nwoye, made the claim in Aguobu-Owa, Ezeagu Local Government Area of the state, when a former Commissioner for Culture and Tourism in the state, Chief Joe Mmamel, defected to the APC from the PDP.
    According to Nwoye, the clarification had become necessary following a recent claim by the PDP that some APC members defected to its fold.

    NAN reports that the state PDP, at a recent zonal meeting in Awgu, announced the defection of 5,000 members of the APC into its fold.

    At the meeting, the defectors wielded brooms which they finally dropped and pledged allegiance to the PDP.
    Nwoye, however, claimed that the action was a panic measure adopted by the state PDP.

    “They have two factions; so, what happened there was phony – PDP members defecting between their factions.
    “There were no faces known to us as our members but we have real PDP members defecting to our party,” Nwoye said.
    Also reacting, a former governor of the state under the PDP, Mr Sullivan Chime, who now belongs to APC, said: “We need to tell our people the truth because the game of politics has changed.
    “When PDP was on ground, there was no other viable party in the state.
    “Other political parties always joined our campaign train but what we hear today is that some people were given brooms to declare for PDP.
    “Not a single person was identified as an APC member.”
    The former governor said that he declared for the APC in his ward, urging that whoever desired to change political party should not hide his identity.
    “I declared for APC publicly in my ward. Former Senate President, Dr Ken Nnamani, and some others did the same thing.’’
    Chime said that the APC had come to stay in the state.