APC Ebonyi State confirms reason for expelling factional Senatorial Candidate
The All Progressives Congress, APC, Ebonyi State Chapter, has said it expelled a factional senatorial candidate of the party for Ebonyi South, Mrs. Ann Agom-Eze, because of alleged gross misconduct.
The state party chairman, Chief Stanley Okoro-Emegha, stated this while briefing journalists in Abakaliki on Sunday.
Okoro-Emegha said, “Mrs. Agom-Eze has recklessly disparaged herself too by eating back her words to satisfy her paymasters.
“How can a woman who voluntarily wrote, signed, and submitted her letter of withdrawal from the senatorial primary that gave the Federal High Court, Abakaliki, the impetus to order a fresh election still deny it in broad daylight?
“Do you know that she also sworn an affidavit to that effect and all these documents are substantially available, including at the national secretariat?”
He added, “Since her expulsion from the party started in her Umudomi ward in Onicha Local Government Area of the state, even as your state party chairman, I cannot interfere with the decision because politics is a grassroots engagement.”
Meanwhile, a group, Ebonyi South Concerned Citizens, has kicked against Agom-Eze’s expulsion.
The group alleged that the state government, through its agents, coerced the Vice Chairman of Umudomi Ward, Mr. Nwitte John-Eze, to sign a letter expelling Agom-Eze on Saturday.
According to the group, the same letter was, on Wednesday, rejected by the Ward Chairman, Ogbonnaya Ogboji.
The leader of the group, Ugochukwu Orji, stated this, on Sunday, in a statement titled, “Suspension saga about Princess Ann Agom-Eze: A mere fallacy, move that increases Umahi’s desperation.”
Agom-Eze came second in the APC senatorial primary for Ebonyi South zone held on June 28, 2022, and was joined in a matter challenging the state governor, David Umahi’s supposed qualification to still contest the ticket after participating and losing the party’s presidential primary.
The matter, our correspondent gathered, is still pending at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.
The Special Assistant on Media and Strategy to Governor Umahi, Mr. Chooks Okoh, described the allegation that some people were offered 1 million naira to sign Agom-Eze’s suspension letter as baseless. He added that she should approach the party leadership and sort herself out.
Punch/S.O
