Group insists on suspension, EFFC probe of party chair
Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, has intervened in the crisis rocking the Anambra State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and expressed the hope that the crisis emanates from June 2021 governorship primary will be resolved amicably.
Reacting to that he masterminded the crisis, which led to the suspension of the APC Chairman by his loyalists, he urged Acting Chairman of the party, Basil Ejidike, who was purportedly suspended, to manage the crisis in the executive and working committees, which had led to the exit of several members.
In a statement issued by his Media Office in Abuja, Ngige called for a truce, urging all parties to embrace peace, even as Ejidike planned to inaugurate a panel to investigate the minister and his supporters’ involvement in the crisis and recommend appropriate sanctions.
Ngige noted that APC’s crisis and misfortune were the fallout of June 26, 2021, maintaining that although the primary election did not hold, Ejidike and some persons, who did not wish the state chapter well, announced some fictitious figures for each of the 13 aspirants and declared a winner.
“The situation resulted in the loss of the governorship election. The minister had watched the development with disbelief and consternation because this is not the style of the original APC members in Anambra State over the years.
“While we do this, however, Ejidike is advised to resolve the issues in the working committee by first telling himself the truth. Creating a phantom Trojan Horse to explain away a self-inflicted injury is unthinkable,” the statement reads.
But another group urged Ngige and other stakeholders to facilitate the emergence of new leadership for the party, insisting that its decision to suspend Ejidike and involve the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in investigating his activities as final.
Spokesman of the group, Uchenna Okonkwo-Okom, accused Ejidike of raising N25m to buy palliatives for party members at the grassroots level to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, vowed that the group looked forward to the EFCC for its intervention.
Okonkwo-Okom, who was a member of the state House of Assembly and contested the House of Representatives seat on APC platform in 2015 and 2019, said there was no going back on Ejidike’s suspension.
While denying claims that he left APC for the Action Alliance Congress (AAC) with its governorship candidate, Chidozie Nwankwo, he challenged those doubting his membership of the party to ascertain the true position of his status at his ward.
Source: Guardian.ng
